Tracy Jarmon >> Bio
Tracy Jarmon Tracy Jarmon is a life-long New Orleanian. Born in Texas in 1966, he soon after moved to Louisiana where he was raised by his mother and grandmother in Jefferson Parish. An early preoccupation with light, color and shape drove him to painting when he was a teenager. After high school Tracy attended Delgado Community College, where, aside from art studies, he took several courses in psychology and philosophy. Though New Orleans will always be home, Tracy's curious nature has sent him traveling throughout Central and South America, Australia, and Thailand. He has also hiked the Appalachian Trail in its 2,160 mile entirety. Tracy's fascination with religion and spiritual symbolism is incorporated in his paintings and collages, a combination of acrylics, oil pastels, spray paint, and other mixed media. In 2005, The New Orleans Times Picayune featured an exhibition of his collages in its Art for Art's Sake "must see" list. He hand painted the trophies for the "Where Y'at" Magazine's "New Orleans' Best Bartender 2006" competition, and his works have been showcased in several New Orleans restaurants and clubs, including Cafe Degas, Louisiana Pizza Kitchen, and The Republic. Tracy currently has two exhibitions in the French Quarter, one at Studio 831, and another at Milk Studio. Flooding after Hurricane Katrina destroyed Tracy's Mid-City workspace and most of his paintings. Some unfinished and others ready for sale were left floating in floodwater for days. Tracy did manage to salvage and restore some of the pieces, integrating the stains and watermarks into the finished works. Chris Rose, columnist for The Gambit and a collector of Tracy's paintings, mentioned Tracy in a March 2006 Times Picayune article, which was later adapted into his book, One Dead in the Attic. Rose depicted his search for Tracy after the storm. "I'm assuming that all his work was destroyed," wrote Rose, "the thing about Tracy is, he's probably laughing it off somewhere. He's got that New Orleans thing crawling all over him, the good stuff, that We Are the Champions, the hell with the rest and I'll just start over kind of attitude." Rose wasn't too far off. By the time the article was first published, Tracy was already back from his evacuation to Austin, Texas, and had returned to work (in fact, several of his co-workers emailed Rose informing him of Tracy's whereabouts). By August of 2006 he had produced two simultaneous showings. Tracy has relocated his studio workspace in Mid-City New Orleans, where he continues to work on the damaged paintings as well as rebuild a collection of new work. "All of my paintings are a moment or slice of my life. I'm searching for a language to replace the traditional, a language without words, but with colors, pictures and symbols." . |