The Jason Fallon Story

I’m gonna f**king paint: The Jason Fallon Story Less than a year ago Jason Fallon, the New England native now residing in downtown Los Angeles, found himself in a tight spot, literally: “All my walls were filled, my laundry room, the hallways, just piles and piles of canvases.” While his crowded apartment was not exactly TLC Hoarders worthy, the plethora of art made quite an impression on his house guests: “Friends would come over and start bidding on the paintings. Eventually I decided to have an art show in my apartment and sold five paintings that night. I sold them for ten, twenty, thirty five bucks at the most; I was just so happy that people actually liked my work.”  Jason is not your typical manufactured fresh out of art school painter; when he began painting he didn’t have any specific artistic influences or dreams of grandeur, he just needed to paint and that need, like so many other artistic urges, stemmed from a struggle to come to grips with startling circumstances. In early 2010, Jason lost his business, his fiancée, and his mother was diagnosed with cancer. At first, the doctors couldn’t figure out where his mother’s cancer had originated from therefore putting treatment at a standstill and leaving everyone in the family feeling overwhelmed and powerless.  Out of work and full of nervous energy, Jason was restless until one evening a light bulb went off: “I just remember thinking: I’m gonna fucking paint. I didn’t know where to start so I began at the center of a piece of cardboard and painted outward. That first piece was very dark, black and red; I was really angry then.” Jason says he became addicted to painting: if he bought five canvases he would be finished with them in one night; sitting on the floor with music blasting he would paint until there was nothing left to paint. But keeping late hours in an apartment building didn’t always go over well with the other tenants in the apartment building. One evening, surrounded by jars of oil paints and several fresh canvases, Jason was jolted up out of the zone by a loud banging at his door. His downstairs neighbor, red faced, fuming and twice his size, barged into the apartment like a bull ready for battle. That is until he looked around the apartment: “I’ll never forget, he looked down at the floor and his eyes panned around the living room and it was like a switch went off, like he was suddenly disoriented. I told him I’d turn down the music but he just said ‘nevermind,’ and left. I guess you could say my art saved me that night” But in terms of saving, Jason doesn’t seem to be in need of any; in just over twelve months he has completed one hundred and eighty paintings, showcased his work [add info here about where it has been showcased].  But the kind of reaction his disgruntled neighbor displayed seems to be a common reaction amongst those who have viewed his work. Like a great film his paintings have the power to transport their viewers to a different kind of reality; his art leaves people reflecting on its meaning and messages long after they’ve left the gallery.  Taking me on a tour of his apartment last Saturday night, it’s a lot less cluttered than it used to be, Jason stops at each painting and tells me the story behind it. His memory is impeccable and full of youthful energy but with that comes a kind peacefulness. At the end of the tour his eyes glimmered with excitement as he told me about the painting he is currently working on and then, like a child about to let me in on a magic trick he said: “Okay this is kind of crazy but, awhile back a client of mine left two large canvasses in my office and never came back for them. I don’t even know how I happened to have some paint lying around but I did so I just fucked around on’em. Months later I was having a yard sale and I put one of the paintings out, just as a joke. This guy came along and pointed at the painting. He didn’t even speak English and he had an interpreter with him; it was wild. The interpreter asked how much I wanted for it. I sold it to him for ten bucks.” *This article was originally published by: www.jasonfallonart.com.