Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Maybe you’ve been there: lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to fall asleep.
Oregon-based artist Spring Break Jake (born Jacob Jerome Kenobi) suffered from insomnia and sleep deprivation for more than 20 years. He channeled his struggle into a new collection of paintings he calls Night Life, an Exhibition on the Experience of Insomnia, showing in The Bunker SLO through August.
“In hindsight, it’s been quite a journey over the past 20-plus years,” Jake explained in an email interview. “I’d say the worst of it was in high school when I truly could not fall asleep before 1 or 2 a.m., some nights even 4 a.m., before having to wake up at 6 a.m. Throughout the years, I started figuring I was just a total night owl, but it wasn’t until working with my current therapist and finally focusing on my mental health that I realized what a profound role sleep really plays on our well-being and how much the lack of it has shaped my life.
“But it’s seriously so much better now, which I think is a big reason I was even able to paint a whole show about these experiences. I started working with a sleep specialist, got diagnosed with sleep apnea and use a CPAP machine, I work out three to four days a week, and I go to bed around 10 p.m. and wake up at 7 a.m. every day.”
About 30 percent of adults experience insomnia, about 10 percent chronically. Sleep deprivation can lead to a host of physical and mental illnesses, which is why Jake, Bunker owner Missy Reitner-Cameron, and gallery and events manager Kalae KilinaLokeLani have partnered with Transitions-Mental Health Association to donate a portion of sales to the Central Coast nonprofit that works with mentally ill people.
“I really feel immensely privileged to be an artist, so it’s important to me that part of this career is supporting causes and missions that are near and dear to my heart,” Jake said.
On his website, springbreakjake.com, his motto reads: “Fine art for your mental health.” Art certainly inspires, but can it improve mental health?
“Without a doubt!” Jake asserted. “There’s quite a bit of research out now on the positive effects of not just viewing art but living amongst it. Public art has been found to uplift whole communities, improving mental health and creating a shared connection and pride in where you live. We all genuinely need more art in our lives!”
Born and raised in Minneapolis, Jake started heading west as a teenager.
“I got very into snowboarding as a kid in Minnesota, so when I turned 18, I started moving west. I went to school in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for two years, then lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, for almost 10, before my wife and I moved to Bend to be closer to her family.”
He’s also a self-taught artist whose work could be described as “primitivism.” He’s clearly interested in creating rich surfaces.
“My style has taken a long time to develop because I initially pursued graphic design for a while, then transitioned to freelance illustration, followed by murals, and now fine art. I think my work as an illustrator influenced my style the most, especially the fact that almost all of my freelance work has been digital illustration. A desire for something more tactile and hands-on led me to create very textured, mixed media work.”
In Night Life, clear symbolism is at play as Jake juxtaposes lush green foliage with stark white skeletal images.
“Memento mori is an overarching theme in my work simply because the best motivator I’ve found to work on my mental health issues and heal from something like insomnia is the fact that I’m going to die. I want to live a full and fulfilling life while I have one, both for myself and for my loved ones. I try to convey that idea by showing the contrast of life and death and encouraging the acceptance of both the good and the bad through symbols of paradise, like the tropical foliage that live alongside the darker colors and shrouded figures.
“I was very fortunate as a kid to go on family vacations to Florida most years, and those memories ended up being some of my happiest,” he continued. “A love for all things tropical has stuck with me, coming to represent the beautiful and the positive aspects of our finite lives.”
Jake hopes people suffering from their own mental health struggles might be encouraged by seeing his depicted.
“During my toughest times, I found a lot of relief from learning that I wasn’t the only one feeling that way. Mental health struggles are incredibly isolating, and our brains do way too good of a job convincing us that we’re the only ones who have ever experienced this and that no one will ever understand. I’m frankly not always comfortable making work that’s so self-focused, about myself and my experiences, but that’s the kind of work I always connect with most from other artists because I get it; I feel seen and understood.
“Hopefully, my paintings can do the same for someone else.”
These layered, textured, and rather stark images depict duality—life and death, light and darkness, beauty and decay.
“The imagery and textures are meant to convey the conflicting realities that insomnia embodies,” Jake explained. “The bedroom can be perfectly quiet and still on the outside, but inside one’s mind can be a chaotic mess of anxious overthinking and restlessness.” Δ
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Aug 21-31, 2025.
