Nick Meyer
Nick Meyer studied at SVA and RISD, before getting his BFA at MassArt. After six years of art school he still hadn’t had enough so he packed his bags and headed west for sunny California where he got his MFA from CCA. Soon enough all the vitamin D and positive attitude took it’s toll on him so he moved back to his home town in rural Massachusetts. He now lives in a big house with a bunch of his friends in Northampton, where he spends his time in front of a computer in his basement.
Mr. Meyer, What’s up?
Really nothing at all. I’m snowed in. Trying to get some work done.
How would you desribe your artwork?
If I’m Being honest I don’t have a good answer to that. In short I take pictures of my friends and our lives together, but it’s probably more than that. I think there’s a bit of fantasy involved. I work in a pretty documentary fashion; don’t pose my subjects, don’t set up scenes. But I think that what I choose to show, how I edit it, keeps it from being a straight document. I could digress here for a minute and talk about Barthes studium and punctum but that would get boring in a hurry. Pretty much it’s just a way of remembering. You create your own history. And honestly I don’t really believe that history is capable of being totally true so you make it up. I’m making it up. In my memory at least, I come from a fairly permissive environment. There wasn’t a lot I could do to rebel or get under my parents skin. In the end I find that I’m just trying to live this life of theirs that I only know from my childhood and through old snapshots that have been filed away in albums. It ends up being pretty simple: it’s hot so you go swimming, it’s cold so you stay in, read a book, you spend time with your friends because it’s just better than being alone. I have to admit though that most of my pictures are jokes to me. Little things that make me chuckle. I’m making fun of myself and my subjects. I’m just lucky enough to have friends with a good sense of humor. It’s funny to talk about this as my artwork. It’s more the thing that no matter how hard I try i can’t escape. I have a few other projects in the works, some of which aren’t even photo based, but I’ll just stay mum on that for now. 
I think since I’ve met you, you’ve always talked about the presentation of your photos being in book form. Word on the street is that it’s finally happening. Details?
Yeah. My graduate thesis was a book titled “Pattern Language.” It’s a collection of my work to date pretty much, with some clever editing and a lot of help from friends and teachers. it has a loose narrative, but really is about the pictures and the over arching story. My friend Woody Hambrecht is starting a small independant publishing company called Brick publishing and I’m the lucky guinea pig. We’ll see how it turns out. Hopefully it will be out in March, but there’s still a lot to do. Sorry for the plug. The book form has always just been a natural format for the work. It sits better in the pages. I guess because the pictures are about a group of people. It’s a story to begin with so why not put it in a story format. I think the book lends itself to the recurring characters and recurring themes. It points out the similarities in how we live our lives as well as time passing, aging, people coming and going. It just makes a little more sense, makes the pictures more tactile, less something that should just be looked at, but something that could be held and moved. It makes it a bit more animate. 
Ok, so you have an MFA. Now What?
Unemployment comes to mind. I mean the idea was to teach, but it’s a cut throat industry. so honestly we’ll just have to wait and see. In the mean time I’ll just keep making work. At least I can pretend to be a professional.
What advice would you give to young/emerging artists? Get out while the gettin’s good. No I think the best thing to remember, and I always need to remind myself this, but don’t get caught up in the bullshit. I mean, it would be nice to make a living doing what you love, but don’t whore yourself out to make that a reality. Just keep making the work that’s important for you, keep showing it to anybody with eyes. It’s just a game of perseverance and patience. 
What 5 artists should everyone know about?
God, now I have to think. my two all time favorites are Alice Neel and Edward Hopper. Because they’re really just that good, but everyone already knows that so… There’s this one photographer who I didn’t hear about till last year but I think he’s been around for awhile, his name is Seiichi Furuya. Just really beautiful pictures of his wife and child and a real heartbreaking story. I have a couple friends in Philadelphia who are doing some great things. Two of them are at Space 1026, Alex Lukas, makes great paintings and Crystal Stokowski, does just about everything. Also in Philly my friend Jena Derman makes amazing drawings and really amazing baked goods. Lucky Dragons, a band and more. Everyone should definitely know them. Paper Rad, if you ever have the chance to read a comic, or see Extreme Animalz or Dr. Doo play you shouldn’t miss it. I really have too many to list. There’s a lot of great shit happening right here in Northampton, just people making art. no hang-ups. If you come by I’ll show you some stuff.
What’s the best part about living in Western Mass?
Well, like I said there’s a lot of people doing a lot of things, just because. I really like that, and not to get to hippie on you, it creates a really good energy to be around. Also it’s quiet, no distractions. I have most of my life here that makes it easy, all of my friend (subjects) under one roof. It’s close to a bunch of major cities, but not a major city itself. We have four seasons here which was a big problem on the west coast. You can wear a t-shirt at night during the summer and go a whole winter without seeing your body fully naked. I don’t know. My mom and dad are here, I like my parents.
What’s the worse?
There’s not enough spaces for people to show their work. also I don’t have a job and I wish there was one for me here.
