Work samples

  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska—installation, front view.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska—installation, front view.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska—installation, front view. Influenced by contemporary long form cinema, fiction, and memoir and artists ranging from Marcel Duchamp to Laurie Anderson, Livingston’s ongoing multi-media installation includes painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, audio, text, and found objects. It is a work of auto-fiction that mines stories culled from the artists life.
  • Tremors
    Tremors is a video collage animation with composed sound. It uses hundreds of individual frames composed in photoshop and assembled. It is a a image and sound based tone poem exploring memory and aging. The artist ha an inherited form of essential tremor. Essential tremor is a nervous system (neurological) disorder that causes involuntary and rhythmic shaking. It can affect almost any part of the body, but the trembling occurs most often in the hands. Instead of viewing it as an affliction he embraces it—videos quiver, lines shake, and his voice wavers.
  • As the Water Rushes Over Us —Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska. Installation detail video on canvas
    As the Water Rushes Over Us —Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska. Installation detail video on canvas
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska. Installation detail. Video projected onto painting and objects. In the installation videos are used to project on paintings and shown on screens. Here a large painting with a white Les Paul guitar serves as the backdrop to a video that has single lines of poetic text that appear between moving images.
  • Witness
    Witness is a video os a lone car burning in the night. It references a situation the artist saw in Houston in the late 1980's and that follow-up research revealed is common all across the country on a daily basis.

About Jack

Baltimore City

Jack Livingston is an artist, educator, and writer. His writing on arts and culture is regularly published in online and print arts journals. He has taught at many regional colleges and universities, including Maryland Institute, University of Maryland at College Park, and Johns Hopkins University. He is currently an adjunct professor at Towson University.  His work is in The Menil Collection in Houston and many individual collections around the country.
 
He was born in 1953 in… more

Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - Installation

Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska is an ongoing large-scale multimedia installation that presents a fractured memoir that draws on the American West and the counter-culture experience of the past half century. The artist uses this format to exhume a rich cultural and personal history, full of revelation and myriad contradictions. Livingston grew up in the region and lived there for most of his life.

The installation includes audio, video, sound, found objects, photographs, painting, drawing, and creative writing.

Note: Many of the artist's family have an inherited form of  essential tremor. Essential tremor is a neurological disorder that causes involuntary and rhythmic shaking. It can affect almost any part of the body, but the trembling occurs most often in the hands . As the artist ages, he has essential tremors. He embraces it. Throughout the work presented he retains evidence of this. Videos quiver, lines shake, paint  is raked, and the sound of his voice wavers .

  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska installation front view.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska installation front view.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska multi-media installation front view in a large gallery space.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska  installation back view.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska installation back view.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska multi-media installation back view.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska installation detail, large glass.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska installation detail, large glass.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska  installation middle view.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska installation middle view.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska multi-media installation middle view.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska multi-media installation
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska multi-media installation
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska multi-media installation, projected video on canvas and objects.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - John Buffalo
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - John Buffalo
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation. John Buffalo painting, acrylic on canvas with objects.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation. John Buffalo.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation. John Buffalo.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation. John Buffalo painting—detail. Acrylic on canvas.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation detail.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation detail.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation. Sound station. Found sculpture integrated with playable sound equipment.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation, floor back view.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation, floor back view.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation floor back view. Found and created sculpture and sound.
  • Cassettes
    Cassettes
    Cassettes and found objects near paintings - installation detail.

Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - Installation

The large-scale multimedia installation can be installed in a variety of ways. Here a small backroom is used with a single video with sound. In the entrance there is a portrait of the artists daughter from the early 1970's, printed on see through silk fabric, hung from the ceiling. Throughout the exhibition there are others depicted in this way. They are people the artist's life from the era. They are frozen in time, see through and gauzy. Some still alive, some not. Most appear in the text.

Included are  found objects collected from the sides of highways and roads, debries from the artist's travel and his exploration of car culture. Post accident  car parts, shredded rubber from tires flug off massive trucks moving at high speed, chunks of broken roadway and rebar. These readymades are full of dignity and beauty, tailmans of the everyday that often go unnoticed.

There are guitars placed throughout the exhibition with places for visitors to sit. The audience is invited to use them. Guitars were seminal to change within the counterculture of the past decades. Instruments that when electrified through amps make a massive sound— mimicking the industrial world, the war machine, the changing mechanized world. They are the most democratic of instruments. Easy to learn to play, affordable, and iconic.

The sound used on videos and in the installation is created by Livingston using avante methods including alt-tuning, feedback, and multi-tracking (influenced by new music and conceptual performance). This can be explored in real time by the artist, visitors, and by guest sound/artists who can bring their own take on the materials and the ideas presented.




  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska
    Small room installation of Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska
    Side installation view Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska.
  • Sound area from installation
    Sound area from installation
    Installation detail. Found objects, car parts, with guitar and sound equipment.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - side view.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - side view.
    Installation detail side view.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation detail.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation detail.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation detail, car door, guitars, amplifiers, found objects.
  • Suitcase with sound equipment and counter culture magazines.
    Suitcase with sound equipment and counter culture magazines.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation detail. Suitcase with sound equipment and counter culture magazines.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation detail.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation detail.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation detail. Amplified corner with Telecaster and Stratocaster with paints and photographs.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation detail.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation detail.
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - installation detail. Car seats, sound equipment, door, painting.
  • The Daughter
    The Daughter
    The Daughter - large photo print on silk organza.
  • Robert
    Robert
    Robert - large format photo print on silk organza.

Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - Writing

The Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska installation includes text not only in the work and videos, but a series of short stories published together in a book of the same title. Like the exhibiton, which changes in each installation the book is published in small editions which include differing stories depending on the show.

There are future plans to publish everything together in a final book combining image and text. The stories are also recorded to audio, read by the author, and played in discreet locations within the exhibtion.

The short stories are all auto fiction based on aspects of the artists life and personal history.
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska   Book Cover
    Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska Book Cover
    Book cover (front and back) for Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska
  • Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska
    Auto-fiction short story from the book that accompanies the exhibition.

    When a family moves, an anxiety ridden young teenager leaves Denver and drives to Hannibal, Missouri with the wild older sister he admires.
  • Author reading Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska
    Author reading Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska. First story from the book of text and audio that plays in the installation. When a family moves, an anxiety ridden young teenager leaves Denver and drives to Hannibal, Missouri with the wild older sister he admires.
  • Racing Towards Dawn
    Auto fiction short story from Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska read by the artist. Two friends race through an overnight thousand mile drive between Denver and Chicago that have have made many times before. Their complicated lives are explored through memory and conversation.
  • It's All Over Now
    Auto-fiction short story from Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska. Text version.

    On his twenty first birthday, a troubled young man agrees to a party given by two sisters. It turns into a much larger more complicated event than anyone involved considered.
  • It's All Over Now
    Auto fiction short story from Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska read by the artist. On his twenty first birthday, a troubled young man agrees to a party given by two sisters. It turns into a much larger more complicated event than anyone involved considered.
  • Trouble
    Auto fiction short story from Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska. Text version.

    True story of  a young person who deals with a dilemma when a  school overseen by an ultra right-wing board decides to remove students for their beliefs under the guise of how how they look. 
  • Magnetic Fields
    Auto fiction short story from Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska. Text version.

    Two aimless young men go to work in a grim factory outside of Chicago.
  • Swimming (Houston 1980s and 1990s)
    Auto fiction short stories from Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska. Text version.

    An extended story with four sections — each focusing on a differing person from the Houston art scene.

Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - Photography

Photographs of cars in western landscapes from the multimedia installation Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska.

Driving across the region is a key motif repeated in the exhibition. The artist has photographed many areas discussed from cars throughout his life. To replicate some the key locations he was depicting, he began to use small cars and google maps to travel back to key locations. He found by placing the cars in front of screens he could capture a sense of the landscape while toying with a sense of reality and playfulness.

He also began using old slides he had taken and collected over the years, digitizing them, and producing them in large formats.

  • Plymouth Fury III
    Plymouth Fury III
    Plymouth Fury III in Nebraska landscape.
  • Black Convertible in Western Nebraska
    Black Convertible in Western Nebraska
    Photo of car in western landscape.
  • Chevy Impala in Nebraska Storm
    Chevy Impala in Nebraska Storm
    Photograph of Chevy Impala in Nebraska storm.
  •  Rambler Station Wagon in Nebraska
    Rambler Station Wagon in Nebraska
    Photograph of Rambler Station Wagon in Nebraska.
  • Larimer Square 1969
    Larimer Square 1969
    Larimer Square 1969 - (From the window of Plymouth Fury III) - large format photograph. Larimer was an area in downtown Denver that was the skid row of the area. It is now a tourist area. It sits near the railroad line and is a place many people who lived outside the mainstream culture congregated. My friends and I spent a lot of time in the area as a child and until it's redevelopment. This is the area where Neal Cassidy, the main character of jack Kerouac's On the Road grew up.
  • South Platte River - 1969
    South Platte River - 1969
    South Platte River - 1969 - large format photograph. L Denver, Colorado sits on banks of The South Platte River. I lived near here by Ralston Creek, one of many small tributaries that flow from the mountains into the river. There are many references to this region both in the text, and in paintings, and photographs I took before the region was developed into one big suburbia.

Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - Paintings

Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska is a a "modular" installation. It can be exhibited in many forms, large and small. It could be in a closet or fill a museum gallery.

A part of the modules include a variety of series of paintings on paper and canvas.

These paintings take many forms. A number are dark abstractions based on what the flat western landscape of the great plains looks like at night  from car windows and trains. The land rushes by, blurred in the distance, marks seen on signs and on the highway. The prairie grasses and crops fly by in magnificent patterns, broken by side roads and signage. Various animals are glimpsed. Thoughts are depicted through words scralwed on the surface.
 

  • Zepher
    Zepher
    Zepher- acrylic on canvas 4' x 8'
  • Highway Western Night
    Highway Western Night
    Highway Western Night, acrylic and pencil on paper 26" x 40"
  • Western Highway Night (Driver)
    Western Highway Night (Driver)
    Western Highway Night (Driver) - acrylic and pencil on paper 26" x 40"
  • Western Highway Night (Engine)
    Western Highway Night (Engine)
    Western Highway Night (Engine) - acrylic and pencil on paper. 26" x 40"
  • Western Highway Night (Fury)
    Western Highway Night (Fury)
    Western Highway Night (Fury) - acrylic and pencil on paper. 26" x 40".
  • Western Highway Night (No)
    Western Highway Night (No)
    Western Highway Night (No) - acrylic and pencil on paper. 26" x 40"
  • Western Highway Night (Passenger Window)
    Western Highway Night (Passenger Window)
    Western Highway Night (Passenger Window) - acrylic and paper on paper. 26" x 40"
  • Western Highway Night (Speed)
    Western Highway Night (Speed)
    Western Highway Night (Speed) - acrylic and pencil on paper. 26" x 40"
  • Western Highway Night (Throttle)
    Western Highway Night (Throttle)
    Western Highway Night (Throttle) - acrylic and pencil on paper. 26" x 40"
  • Western Highway Night (The Last Summer)
    Western Highway Night (The Last Summer)
    Western Highway Night (The Last Summer) - acrylic and pencil on paper. 26" x 40"

Falling Off the End of Nebraska — Paintings

There area variety of subsets of paintings in Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska.

The Reflector Series are created silver paint and  reflector micro beads enbedded in layers of  clear medium. The micro beads are the type  used in highway signs. They light up in bright reflection when hit by car lights. These paintings change in light as the viewer moves in front of them.

The Highway Estatic Series  are painted with industrial yellow highways paint. They depict images drawn from the figurative style of highway signs to depict singular persons in various states of “being” and “ecstatic experience”. Elsewhere the same figures crop up as ciphers within landscapes.

The Car Series are a number of large paintings of automobiles that are  are similar to those once owned by the artist over his life, all reference in text and elesewhere in the exhibition. These painting are often combined with objects and some are used to project video on.
  • Reflector
    Reflector
    Reflector - silver spray paint, micro-reflector beads. clear acrylic medium. 20 " x 48" From a series.
  • Falling Man
    Falling Man
    Falling Man - Highway Ecstatics Series. Industrial yellow highways paint and acrylic on paper 38" x 50" This series depicts images drawn from the figurative style of highway signs and depict people in various states of “being” and “ecstatic experience”.
  • Struck - Highway Ecstatic
    Struck - Highway Ecstatic
    Struck - Highway Ecstatics Series. Industrial yellow highways paint and acrylic on paper 38" x 50" This series depicts images drawn from the figurative style of highway signs and depict people in various states of “being” and “ecstatic experience”.
  • Run - Highway Ecstatic
    Run - Highway Ecstatic
    Run - Highway Ecstatics Series. Industrial yellow highways paint and acrylic on paper 38" x 50" This series depicts images drawn from the figurative style of highway signs and depict people in various states of “being” and “ecstatic experience”.
  • Stop - Highway Ecstatic
    Stop - Highway Ecstatic
    Stop — Highway Ecstatics Series. Industrial yellow highways paint and acrylic on paper 38" x 50" This series depicts images drawn from the figurative style of highway signs and depict people in various states of “being” and “ecstatic experience”.
  • Plymouth Fury / Airline Guitar
    Plymouth Fury / Airline Guitar
    Plymouth Fury / Airline Guitar - combine painting. acrylic on canvas with charcoal and found object. 6' x 6'
  • Chevy Impala
    Chevy Impala
    Chevy Impala - acrylic and charcoal on canvas 6' x 6'.

Falling Off the Edge of Nebraska - Video

The exhibition includes a number of short experimental videos that combine text, sound, moving and still image. All sound used in the video is created by the artist using instruments included in the installation. The videos are presented on  high defintion screens and projected onto canvas and objects.
  • Witness
    Witness is a video os a lone car burning in the night. It references a situation the artist saw in Houston in the late 1980's and that follow-up research revealed is common all across the country on a daily basis.
  • TREMORS
    Tremors is a video collage animation with composed sound. It uses hundreds of individual frames composed in photoshop and assembled. It is a a image and sound based tone poem exploring memory and aging. The artist ha an inherited form of essential tremor. Essential tremor is a nervous system (neurological) disorder that causes involuntary and rhythmic shaking. It can affect almost any part of the body, but the trembling occurs most often in the hands. Instead of viewing it as an affliction he embraces it—videos quiver, lines shake, and his voice wavers.
  • First Wed
    Short video that include super eight mm film, high definition video, text, and sound created with the instruments that are included in the installation. The artist collects old super eight mm film. He relates to era most depict and culls them for scenes. Here a early 60's wedding is combined with present era video taken from cameras mounted on his car.
  • Some Kind of River
    Short video poetic collage made from video and images shot by others and sent to the artist, along with found images, text, and sound. It is based upon the story of a woman as she returns to her home town near Chicago after leaving decades before as soon as her children were grown.

Swimmers In the Sunrise More than Twice

New series of small gouache paintings from 2023

  • Swimmer
    Swimmer

    Gouache on paper
    11" x 15"

  • Iris
    Iris

    Gouache on paper
    11" x 15"

  • Bonded
    Bonded

    Gouache on paper
    11" x 15"

  • If I Fell
    If I Fell

    Gouache on paper
    11" x 15"

  • California
    California

    Gouache on paper
    11" x 15"

  • Like Light Sound or Language
    Like Light Sound or Language

    Gouache on paper
    11" x 15"

  • Smoke Is Another Elder
    Smoke Is Another Elder

    Gouache on paper
    11" x 15"

  • My Creek
    My Creek

    Gouache on paper
    11" x 15"

  • Core
    Core

    Gouache on paper
    11" x 15"

  • Caroline No
    Caroline No

    Gouache on paper
    11" x 15"

Glitterati Chesapeake Rodeo

Small Mixed Media Paintings 2020

  • The Last Time (loves gone again)
    The Last Time (loves gone again)

    Acrylic and collage material on wood

    10" x 10"
     

  • St Steven (causes go haywire)
    St Steven (causes go haywire)

    Acrylic and collage material on wood
    10" x 10"

  • Gold Rush Tonia
    Gold Rush Tonia

    Acrylic and collage material on wood
    34" x 12"

  • Another Son Embedded
    Another Son Embedded

    Acrylic and cloth collage material on canvas
    10" x 12"

  • Stand Into This Way
    Stand Into This Way

    Acrylic and collage material on wood
    10" x 15"

  • Up Here the Thin Air Slips By
    Up Here the Thin Air Slips By

    Acrylic and collage material on canvas
    10" x 10"

  • Mercy Street
    Mercy Street

    Acrylic  on wood
    5 panels of 4"x4"

  • Kansas City Wicked Love
    Kansas City Wicked Love

    Acrylic and collage material on wood 23" x 12"

  • Nearness of Evermore Clearly
    Nearness of Evermore Clearly

    Acrylic on wood

    4" x 4"

  • Roses Lit
    Roses Lit

    Acrylic and fabric on canvas 
    8" x 10"