In the Summer of 2004 I met Ben Jones, an artist, curator, and jack of all trades who ran an amazing gallery space called the Jigsaw overlooking Tompkins Square Park in New York City. Jones was - and still is - the template for which I wish all others in the art biz were cut: endlessly positive and inventive, with an energetic "let's make things happen" philosophy and a can-do attitude. It was the easiest negotiation I'd ever had for a NYC show - I showed him some of my miniature works and suggested he give me a solo show. After only a beat, he said "Okay. When do you want it?" I decided to go for February, in order to give me plenty of time to come up with all-new material (although I ended up hanging a mix of old and new pieces anyway) and to tie the show in with Valentine's Day. The holiday-topical theme of "Clowns in Love" was hastily contrived and we set about promoting it. From the original press release: "JEFFREY SCOTT HOLLAND, neo-expressionist painter, expresses Valentine-season sentiments in his own primitive way, with "Clowns in Love", an exhibit of new acrylic paintings in NYC's Jigsaw Gallery. The fear of clowns is an actual diagnosed psychiatric condition, called Coulrophobia. Holland admits to finding clowns scary and disturbing, but doesn't think he needs therapy to cure it. "I express my fear and horror through my paintings". Holland's obsession with clowns is a long running one, and his latest series of work displays them at their most frightening - and yet, also at their most humorous. Though clowns have been a favorite subject of artists for centuries, it's not often that we get the chance to peer into their love lives. His technique is rooted in his love for 20th century graphic work such as German Expressionism and comic books, citing influences as diverse as Max Pechstein, Steve Ditko, Georges Rouault, and Rick Altergott. Holland recently appeared in the film "Twisted Illusions 2", and his book, "Invisible Topography", is slated for release in summer 2005. Also scheduled to make a brief appearance at the exhibit's opening reception: weird performance artist Grillo the Clown, who has promised to be on his best behavior for this event."

That last statement turned out to be not so true, because Grillo the Clown and "best behavior" are mutually exclusive concepts. The idea was that Grillo would mingle around the crowd and do his usual surrealist clown shtick, like pulling a piece of baloney out of his breast pocket like a handkerchief and blowing his nose on it, and performing obscene card tricks. Instead, he showed up drunk at the very end of the opening with a stack of shaving cream pies, made a mess with them, and encouraged others to do so as well. Fortunately, everyone assumed it was "part of the act" and Jones didn't seem to mind the Sodium Lauryl Sulfate biohazard. I was proud that my show had garnered the Jigsaw its first-ever coverage on NYC local television as well as a feature article by Dan Haley in Columbia's newspaper. The show was also mentioned on the Howard Stern show during their 2nd annual "Stupid Bowl", although in a very brief and derisive way. As an added attraction, we had a video project by NYC filmmaker Jay Leibowitz called Coulrophobia playing on an endless loop on a computer in the gallery, and later on, a second version of the Auguste Clown painting from the exhibit ended up making an appearance in a local independent film called Liars, based on the stage play by John Cecil. To me, the best part about the whole thing was that it was wheatpaste-flyered and stickered especially heavily, which is pretty ballsy for an event that identifies itself and hard to get away with in NYC, due to their extremely uptight policies on guerilla advertising. I still received inquiries and website hits from those flyers, cards and stickers for a year afterwards.