You may have seen him hanging around the art department in Gorham, a tall, lean man with long brown hair and beard to match. He’s the Art Guru, who also goes by Jeremy Green. He owns the Art Guru, an artist supply store in Gorham.
Recently, the Guru has been closed and the windows covered up. But not to worry, the store has only moved. It’s now located on Church St.
“This I think is a better location,” he said. “(Students) don’t have to drive.”
High rent prompted the move to the new, smaller space. Originally, Green wanted to relocate the store to the first floor apartment of his home, but the town’s fire code demanded that he put in a sprinkler system throughout the building. The high cost led him to look elsewhere and he decided on the Church St. location.
The new space is much smaller than the old, but “less daunting” to fill with supplies, he said.
“Guru means teacher,” he said, adding that more than just selling supplies, he teaches. He plans to use the first floor apartment as a teaching space, where he hopes to teach subjects like mixed media. He also hopes to turn its three bedrooms into studio space for students.
Conveniently located next to the Center for Movement in downtown Gorham, the space is a stone’s throw away from campus. There’s a common kitchen with a microwave and fridge. He plans to rent out the rooms for $200.
————————————————-
Becoming the Guru
Originally from Connecticut, Jeremy Green moved to Portland in 1987 where he began working for Artist Craftsman Supply. There he learned all about the different qualities and types of art tools and mediums. He continued to work there almost continuously until 2004, with a four-year hiatus dedicated to travel.
On a visit home during this break, his motor home took a turn for the worse on Portland’s million-dollar bridge — it broke down, leaving him stranded and homeless.
This loss prompted the need for a more permanent settlement. He purchased a house in Gorham, where he still lives today.
He began working for Artist Craftsman Supply again, traveling around the country looking for new store locations. Eventually ACS gave him the opportunity to set up his own store, under the condition that he’d have to move away from Gorham. With a new home and fiancé, Green wasn’t willing to make the move. Soon after, he was fired.
A week and a half later, still unsure of what he was going to do with his life, Green joined the Maine Enterprise Option (MEO) program. MEO helps the unem employed find the jobs they love to do. The program pays for unemployment while the worker looks for work. Instead of getting any job these workers find the job that they want to do, something that they’ll stick with in the long run.
———————————————–
Art and “ego issues”
Though both his degrees are in printmaking, one from Keene State and the other from MECA, Jeremy Green, the “Art Guru,” now considers himself a mixed media painter. He dabbled for a while in oil but now uses mat acrylics. He starts with a base of this paint and then adds on top. “Anything goes over that and it’s very freeing if you don’t like it,” he said.
Soon, Green hopes to exhibit work he and his fiancé have been working on. Starting last year the pair began working on a collaborative project. At the beginning of the week each artist takes a canvas and spends a half hour on it. The next day they switch canvases and spend another half hour working them. The process continues till the end of the week when they begin anew. “As an artist,” he said, “there’s an ego issue that goes away when you do collaborative work.”