Image as its own language
My visual work explores the human figure as image, document, symbol, and site of political meaning. Through portraiture, text, color, repetition, and scale, I’m interested in how individual lives become entangled with larger questions of identity, power, desire, beauty, and belonging.
I believe art is inherently political. Every image is created within a particular social and cultural moment, and every choice—what is shown, what is omitted, who is centered, and how they are represented—carries meaning. My work begins with the body and the face, but looks beyond likeness toward the forces that shape how we see ourselves and one another.
Whether working on an intimate portrait or a large-scale installation, I want the work to reward both immediate emotional response and sustained attention: to invite viewers closer, complicate their first impressions, and reveal new relationships between image, language, and meaning.
Quad 3, 16 " x 16" oil on canvas
As Americans of Good Conscience
I create art in response to the world, my repeated attempt to communicate our shared experience. As Americans of Good Conscience is my considered reaction to our present socio-political climate. I invite viewers of this piece to engage with the very American obsession with money, wealth, fame, and power through a curation of thoughtful American voices.
Comprised of 30 panels and 1,050 individual gel plate transfer prints, the mural invites observation and study from various distances, for you to move in close to explore each portrait and corresponding quotes, then step back to engage with the larger pixelated symbolism that communicates its own distinctive meaning. Core to the theme of my piece is the idea that the almighty dollar is the actual symbol of America, perhaps more recognizable and more worshipped than even our flag.
Thirty portraits, thirty voices. My goal was to include resonant points of view, that there be at least one someone for everyone included.
I completed As Americans of Good Conscience during my residency at The Common Well thanks to the generous support of the Alexa Rose Foundation. The mural was featured in our culminating Wave III group show at The Common Well in Boise, Idaho in February and March of 2026.
As Americans of Good Conscience, 2026
20’1” x 8’9”, acrylic gel plate transfer on paper mounted on wood panel
Opening reception in February 2026 at the Common Well in Boise, Idaho
Jamey in front of the multi-paneled mural at the opening reception
Jamey Baumgardt
Writer • Visual artist • Creative mentor
© 2026 Jamey Baumgardt