By Eileen Majors
When I first heard about Jesse Guess, I was told he as a ‘spray can artist’, and a phenomenal one at that. So I ventured up to meet Jesse at Plumas Pines Resort where he tended bar over the summer.His roots keep bringing him back to Plumas County where his family ties date back to the early 1900’s, before the gold rush. He told us his family had one of the first homes at Lake Almanor.
It turns out that Guess utilizes many forms of art with his favorites ranking in as pen and ink, and spray paint. He started at the age of 13 and has not stopped since. He originally left Plumas County to obtain his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Sierra Nevada College at Lake Tahoe.
He explained that spray paints for artists come with a variety of tips, and in different applications like flat or gloss, enabling him to achieve different effects. The locally inspired, 12’ X 50’ mural pictured above, was painted by Guess at Feather River College and was done almost entirely with spray paint. He said he feels this mural of American Valley reflects the area in general.
As I asked the questions Guess stood in front of a beverage sign/chalkboard he had completely converted to an artistic scene with pastels (also pictured above). He has painted on many applications including boats and wakeboards. One of his favorite projects was a Volkswagen bus he painted into a ‘magic bus’ and a wall project he did at Pacific Audio in Chico.
He is really very interested in wall painting and said there are a handful of artists who do what they do. They get walls legalized. If there is a wall with a graffiti problem, we paint the wall. It seems to stop the graffiti, he said, “It’s artist’s respect.”
Michelle White