I don’t remember the first time I met Jeramie Bellmay. I do however remember the first time I heard him speak at length about creating something. It was during a conversation about mounting a large scale production that I first witnessed him grab the attention of everyone in the room and set their imaginations on end. Fantastical ideas about unlikely contraptions began to pour out of him, all of it sounding entirely plausible, if not matter-of-fact. “Well of course, there’s going to be giant puppets with real faces projected on them,” I thought to myself, “…and an electronic kaleidoscope perched from a pendulum with which, we will make light and space a plaything for our own amusement. Sounds like a plan, sign me up.”

And this illustrates my impression of Jeramie. Leave space for him to unfurl his imagination and, there in his vision, you will glean, at the very least, one enlightening sliver of reality that had yet to make your acquaintance.

“The most beautiful thing about creating something is that there is the potential for the work to completely step ahead of you and at that point, even though you’ve created it, you actually begin to learn from it.” –Jeramie Bellmay

Jeramie initially began seriously exploring his own creativity through dance, which becomes apparent upon meeting him. As a teen he studied and excelled in various forms of movement though ballet was his focus. At the age of sixteen he created a job for himself by piloting and directing a theater program at his local YMCA. Towards the end of high school he realized the limitations of his body and decided that focusing solely on movement could actually be detrimental to his health so he switched his focus to visual art. Though he spent one year at the School of Visual Art in Manhattan he doesn’t consider himself a trained artist. As a matter of fact he left the school to avoid being “programmed” and thank goodness for that.

Since leaving school Jeramie has amassed quite an impressive body of work that spans a multitude of mediums and explores reality in all of its splendor, tumult, and minutia. If asked the question, “what kind of artist is Jeramie?” I would be at a loss. And I’m sure that as soon as I tried to put a label on him he would produce a piece of work that escape its boundaries. He’s a painter, a sculptor, an inventor, he blows glass, burns and carves wood, cuts hair, contact juggles, and tattoos. His work, which is better experienced first hand rather than described can be found at his website, perceptionaltar.com.

Other credits include a solo exhibition entitled Perception Altar at The Fridge in D.C. and multimedia events such as the Phantasmagoria: Weekend of Magic in Chicago and Sensorium in D.C. Currently he’s co-producing the Winter Festival of Wonders at Area 405 which is happening this weekend. What’s more is that Jeramie will have a solo exhibition of his wood work at Mr. Rains Funhouse at the American Visionary Art Museum in 2013.

“Mediums can deeply connect with spirituality because it is a means of understanding our physical reality. The medium, and I include my body as a medium, has really helped me understand the natural and magical world. When we really begin to observe something and actually begin to translate that to a two dimensional surface, or a three dimensional object, it really changes how you see the world and you begin to understand things. It becomes apparent in the degree of detail that your eye will go to in places that otherwise might have gone overlooked.” –Jeramie Bellmay

The conversations I’ve had with Jeramie and other artists are the great benefit of writing these artist profiles and this particular conversation stands out. Jeramie has remarkable agency over his perception of the world and shares it with great enthusiasm and insight. I would recommend the experience to anyone who has a penchant for good conversation and it just so happens that you can meet Jeramie yourself at the Winter Festival of Wonders this weekend at Area 405. If his art and his demeanor are any indication of what to expect, it’s going to be wildly entertaining time.