Jesse Mosher (born August 11, 1977) is an American contemporary high performance painter, poet, and film-maker based in Fontaine, France. He is known for hand-held high speed realistic portrait paintings on plywood. Previous work includes screen-printed posters, illustration, and comic books.
Jesse Bryant Mosher was born in Greenfield, MA and grew up in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, on a small family farm. His father was a mechanic and his mother a teacher. He became involved with Art in 1987, when he started making and selling comic books, and met/received advice from Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was during this period that Jesse became enamored with listening to rock n roll records, formulated his ideas of high performance painting, and imaging what it would be like to paint rock n roll. In 1995, he graduated from Amherst Regional High School, after amassing a 108-32 record in Wrestling. He attended UMass Lowell
In Febuary 2005, after an accidental Carbon Dioxide poisoning the month before, Mosher moved to San Francisco, where he settled in the Sunset neighborhood, adjacent to Golden Gate park.[1]There he began to paint on plywood in June 2005 and did his first performance paintings with the band Stonar in San Francisco, NYC, and Massachusetts from Fall 2005 to Spring 2006; also recording poetry on an unreleased album with producer Jeff Schmitt (Ex-English Beat) during the fall of 2005.
In 2006, with Stonar on hiatus, he deepened his involvement in synchronized Rock n Roll painting with many portraits of the Velvet Underground done to the beat of their music in his home studio. In August 2006 he completed a large 3 panel painting of Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac for the Grand opening of the Beat Museum[2] where he had his art featured during the opening with Stanley Mouse.
From 2007 to 2008, Mosher painted over 100 paintings at the Blackthorn Tavern in SF, and began to perform with Ride the Blinds, Stonar, and Kidd Cook. In Kidd Cook he toured as a band member painting onstage in CA, OR, AZ, and WA. On October 18th, 2008 Jesse painted his 1,000th new piece in Healdsburg, CA.
When the band changed their name to Strangefeather in 2009 and embarked on a 51 show 22 state US tour[3], he sold 85 paintings across the United States. When the group disbanded in August 2009 he did two short Northwest tours with Guitarist Chris Jones, and lived for two months in Portland, OR. 2009 was Jesse’s most prolific year with 314 pieces and 157 performances.
From 2007 to 2011 he painted at hundreds of shows, with over 1,000 groups in clubs and Festivals in the San Francisco Bay area[4][5][6], and collaborated with painter DeDe McReynolds at shows in Portland, Seattle, and Idaho. He painted in Big Sur California at The Henry Miller Library in 2010, donating the painting to the Library. He painted at shows during those years as diverse as, Joan Jett, The Ferocious Few, The Breeders, Spindrift, Dawes, Rocky Ericsson, Charles Gonzales and many others.
In 2014, he made 203 pieces and 70 performances, performing with such acts as SEWAGE, THE MERRY PRANKSTERS, SIHASIN, REAGAN YOUTH, THE BEATLES FEST NYC. From May 12-19th he painted and roadied for CJ Ramone on a 8 Show tour of the Northeast and Canada, painting for the first time in London Ontario, Toronto and Montreal (captured on the Video Live in Montreal)[14]. In August he was interviewed for and had photos in a VICE profile of CJ Ramone [15].
In 2015, he made 107 pieces and 65 performances with/ at THE DAMNED[19] THE JABBERS, AC/DC, JOAN JETT, SHONEN KNIFE, among others and did 18 and 10 date European tours of Italy, France and Wales. He also did a 17 date Midwest-East Coast, and a 3 date California tour with CJ RAMONE. After 5 years and 53 shows painting with CJ the last one was on December 8, 2015 at Le Petit Bain in Paris, France. A serious medical situation required the canceling of a third European Tour in October 2015, and Operations in November, and the following June 2016. He was featured on the cover and had and an interview in the September/ October issue of Carpezine magazine[17].
In 2016, Jesse made 40 pieces and 22 performances. As part of a Group show at Brooklyn’s MF Gallery April 23rd, he made a short performance, and showed 20 paintings. After a second surgery in Grenoble France, in July he made a 6 date European tour of Italy, Bosnia, Slovenia, Germany and the Czech Republic. Notable groups he painted with in 2016 were LORD BISHOP, ZORAN CALIC BAND, AND 50 KAITZEN. He released the short film JESSE MOSHER EURO TOUR 2015 FIRST BLOOD, made with Paul MacKay and Outsider Productions on April 23rd 2016, at the MF Gallery Show[16].
In 2017, Jesse made 49 pieces and 27 performances. Italy(8), France(8), UK(5), US(4), Slovenia(2). He moved to France on January 11th 2017. His Daughter Ann Teresa Bryant Mosher was Born May 8, 2017 in Grenoble, France. He filmed and performed in 2017 with WIMPY RUTHERFORD and the CRYPTICS, SIHASIN, GUNG HO, YONIC SOUTH, GOBSHITES, AUDACITY, ZIPHEADS, RICCOBELLIS, SEWAGE NYC and others.
In 2018, Jesse invented and made the first 16 prototypes of the guitar easel from April to August. The performances of the year were June 14th at LE VOG, an Art Gallery in Fontaine (France) and June 16th at the Louis Maisonnat Street Fair (Fontaine) with Jean-Claude Champon of “Les Champions” (an early 1960’s RNR).
From September 2018 to April 2019, Jesse opened A/V STUDIOS at 10 Place Louis Maisonnat in Fontaine (France) where he made 271 performance painting videos, showcasing the original 16 guitar easels. He made 42 paintings in 2019. After closing A/V STUDIOS in May, he began work on the first production run of 100 guitar easels. 28 were finished at the close of 2019 with just under 1000 hours invested. The only performances of 2019 were a solo set on April 20th at Club Splinter (Parma, Italy), and April 21st at La Base (Palazzo, Italy), with the bands”Fucking Cookies” and”Yonic South”.