Thanks for visiting. This site is currently getting redesigned and things are a little messy. If you are looking for something and can’t find it, please email Jason at jason@knowingtrees.com . He’ll do his best to be helpful!
Get on the bus this summer as you, your intrepid teacher Jason McInnes, and your fellow Deadheads gather for this eight-week adult education music class dedicated to exploring and performing the music of the Grateful Dead.
Designed by considering the needs of beginning, intermediate and advanced musicians, this course offers a deep dive into the band’s rich catalog, from beloved classics like “Truckin’” and “Friend of the Devil” to deeper cuts and extended jams.
The class includes hands-on instruction, group rehearsals, and opportunities to jam in a relaxed, collaborative setting. Whether you’re a guitarist, bassist, vocalist, keyboardist, drummer, or other instrumentalist, you’ll gain new insight into the Dead’s music through playing it among a generous, encouraging community.
The class will culminate with a gig during The Days Between; the week of celebration and commemoration between the anniversaries of Jerry Garcia’s birth (Aug.1) and death (Aug. 9). Gig details TBA.
Riverside, 2025
Jason McInnes
paint
24 x 36 inches
Arcs, 2025
Jason McInnes
ink
12 x 12 inches
Expression 48, 2025
Jason McInnes
paint
24 x 18 inches
Dziadek
Jason McInnes
Charcoal and chalk
36″ x 24″
2025
I’m thrilled to say that the New Works program, which I was a part of at OffCenter Community Arts, is now up at FUSION, until June 22, 2025.
These are the four pieces I have on display, among the work of 23 more artists from the program.
From OffCenter
This 12-week professional development program provides artists with educational workshops, a peer-network of artists, plus materials and support to create new, original artwork. The New Works program is a unique and welcoming opportunity for artists seeking professional development support.
Jess Baldissero is not only a good friend, she is one of my favorite songwriters. I was honored that she sat with me earlier in the week to discuss the discoveries and accidents of the creative process. We shared some laughs, talked about good times and hard times and we each played a few songs.
Three tracks from The Hermit, my debut solo album are streaming during the pre-order period. The full album will be released June 28, 2024 on Bandcamp.
Setting clear goals, in terms of both skillset and finished work, continues to take an increasingly important place in my creative world. It’s funny, now, to think that setting of goals was not something I thought about very much.
Just as I, as a musician, practice scales, etudes and other small bits of music, I’ve developed a sketchbook practice which supports me in building the visual art skills that I lack at the moment.
At the end of 2021 I began working on a large pen and ink piece. I stepped up to the paper and realized, almost immediately, that I did not have control of the necessary skills to complete the piece as I wanted. I could understand the process intellectually, but it wasn’t going to come out of my pen without more practice.
I used some scrap paper and put this sketchbook together to explore the greyscale. I used three of my favorite mark making tools; pencils, roller ball pens, and fine line pens. In addition, I shifted between hatching and blending techniques with the idea that I would be able to explore not only my abilities, but also the qualities of each instrument.
Thank you for taking a look.
And, please reach out if my experiences could be of service to your art and/or music making practice. I’m happy to answer any questions that you leave in the comments or send me an email.
Today, I am honored and humbled to offer for sale pieces from my Listening Wide-Eyed: Limited-Sight Contour Drawings of Musical Instruments series. Between now and early July 10, 2022 you can purchase a piece ofone-of-a-kind artwork made specifically for you or a loved one.
The Listening Wide-Eyed series is an outgrowth of my visual art, musical and mindfulness practices. Each one-of-a-kind piece from Listening Wide-Eyed is created through a limited-sight process, where I make a drawing on a sheet of bristol board without taking my eyes off the subject. I don’t look at the board until I am done drawing. Within the messiness, the structural knowledge and spiritual essence of each instruments expands.
Piano
Each drawing is a made-to-order, one-of-a-kind piece of visual art. They are created with wax pencil and bristol board. Each purchaser is invited to customize their piece, in regards to which instrument, the use of color and matting. There are also options specific to gifting one of these drawings to a loved one.
This process started as a way to strengthen my visual record abilities. As my practice bloomed, this limited goal fell away and the drawing practice engendered more connections between the parts and the whole of both the instruments and myself. How do we move? Where are we sturdy? Where are we delicate? How do those and other qualities affect our presentation to and relationships with others? Considering these questions allowed me to hold and play each instrument in a more open, inviting way.
BanjoVioling
We see and hear ourselves, and others, every day. I hope having these drawings in our living space, practice room, or at a family dining table prompt us to notice moments when we are making assumptions about what we know about both ourselves and others. I hope that they can act as a guide to remain open, curious and to foster connections in musical spaces and all other relationships.
This spring, I’ve been developing my skills with cyanotypes, printmaking with a sunlight-sensitive wash, which I had previously only dabbled with. The idea of working on a specific cyanotype piece emerged from my natural curiosity and delight in process experimentation and my desire to share a wide range of a pieces at a art exhibition I am a part of in June, 2022. Cyanotypes originally caught my eye because of my love of photography, the satisfaction I find in working within a process and the contentment that build inside of me when I work in greyscale.
In early 2022, I took this photo of the sky while I was visiting the Rio Grande arroyo where I live in Las Cruces, NM. I was delighted how the photograph so clearly expressed the sky gradation and a project emerged. I wanted to recreate this gradation using an underexplored cyanotype kit in my supply shelf.
With further reflection I decided to work with a more traditional landscape. I returned to the arroyo and took this photo with the Robledo Mountains and the dry riverbed under the blue sky.
Over the past two weeks I’ve made over two dozen cyanotype prints from a negative of this photo. In the process, not only have I become more confident with my skills, but I also developed some of my own tools to support this production and created a process that I can easily replicate, day after day, in the bathroom of my apartment.
The clear blue sky, the Robledo Mountains and I have gotten to know each other quite well in this time. As I continued to work on the process and examine the photo, the mountain, which I generally consider so big and ever-present, becomes humble against the vastness of the sky. And I started to see the mountain as myself.
My Presence. My stillness. My humbleness under such a big blue sky.
As I continued to explore these prints I found myself thinking about the yoga posture Tadasana, also known as mountain pose, which I’ve worked with many times.
Once I connected the sensations of printing with the sensations of my mindfulness practices, my process of developing these cyanotypes changed considerably. What had been fairly chaotic, with spilled chemicals, broken glass and a bathroom covered with blue splatters, began to coalesce into a more elegant and manageable set of instructions that I was presenting to myself. A voice in my inner ear lead my movements, which reminded me of my yoga teachers and their gentle reminders to “move with your breath” and “root yourself into the ground.”
Like finding comfort in a rooted and stable mountain pose, or any dedicated mindfulness posture, my cyanotype process has required a lot of experimentation. I’ve used exposure times from 1 minute all the way to 20 min and have kept notes on various paper textures, application brushes and time until sunset. As my thoughts about this mountain and about mountain pose broadened, my life waiting during the exposure time became more still. Rather than trying to multitask and “efficiently use” the 10 or 20 minutes it takes for exposure, I’ve found myself just breathing; sitting next to the papers baking in the sun, taking in the bird songs and the shifting shadows created by our revolving planet.
With practice, my desire for the “perfect print” which was the goal when I started this process, faded away. Today, I see these prints in relation to my work with mindfulness practices. When I began these practices I would get frustrated when I was unable to remain still and focused. The cyanotype process presented similar feels when I rushed and didn’t give the sensitizer time to dry, or I got distracted with my multitasking and forgot to set the timer.
My meditation and yoga teachers showed me that the skill isn’t to not have distracting thoughts while I am doing mindfulness work, but to have the thought, notice it, and let it go. There is no need to follow it. Now I bring a kindred energy to these prints when find the signs of wayward fingerprints on the glass, leave uneven streaks in the sensitizer wash, or when I unwittingly splashed water on the not-yet-exposed paper. I’ve grown to be able to notice these imperfections, think, “Oh.” and then move on. I don’t have to celebrate them, but I also don’t have to condemn them or myself.
Here is a slideshow of some of the prints. Click on the photos to move to the next one.
I have been invited to show several pieces at the upcoming exhibition, Water Worlds, An Exhibition Exploring the Essence of Water (details follow). It’s the first time that I will have multiple pieces at a show, which is very exciting.
I was asked to provide an artist statement to accompany the work. It’s been a long time since I’ve written an artist statement and I’ve never written one based on my visual art.
I’m very happy with my final statement. Here it is. Thank you for reading.
Jason McInnes
Artist Statement
Spring 2022
Gather sustaining provisions.
Reinforce the tunnel walls.
Chip away the stone, blow by blow.
I work like a miner pursuing a vein of gold; the precarious notion that, through the mastery of materials, I become the master of my own existence.
I was built, broken and rebuilt in the midwest of the United States, although I now reside in New Mexico. I am a music-centric teaching artist by vocation. I build systems of learning in my visual and music-based artmaking, which I use to fortify my resolve to “be here now”.
I am drawn to uncomplicated mark making materials. I gravitate toward simple tools like pencils, charcoal and erasers because they are readily available. I dig for universal truths in the tip of a common ballpoint pen. I work alongside the sun; freeing it to develop its greyscale along with me. I choose media that can easily fit in a backpack, be pulled from a pocket on a walk through the desert foothills, or can be worked with in limited studio space.
A mixture of celestial light and human-made light, like street lamps and illuminated signage, dependably grab attention. So does the crisp edge of a line of mesquite trees cutting into a blue sky. My work reflects these relationships as a way to offer reverence to the cosmos as well as serving as a path to keep nourished and grounded.
Water Worlds, An Exhibition Exploring the Essence of Water, Opening Night Reception
Exhibition – Friday, June 10 through Sunday, June 26
Opening Night Reception – Friday, June 10 – 4:00 – 6:30
This exhibition is made possible with the cooperation of KB Studios, Chicago IL and is curated by artist and educator Kaye Buchman. This show demonstrates various artists’ interest in honoring and preserving our most precious resource – water. A portion of proceeds from the sale of work will go to the Alliance for the Great Lakes. The show will open on June 10 and run through June 30.Featured Artists are:Jason McInnes Mary Ridley Mary Gomberg Susan Gamerman Katharine Hathaway Kathleen Maltese Phyllis Rabineau Sue Teller Janet Wishinsky Joan Baer Virginia Carstarphen Kay Buchman
