Photo By Chief Petty Officer Joshua Karsten | 210224-N-GR655-013 GROTON, Conn. (February 24, 2021) – Petty Officer 1st Class Jamie...... read more read more
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GROTON, Conn. – The city of Groton, Connecticut, affectionately known as “The Submarine Capital of the World,” is known for, well… submarines. The quasi-famous nautical town is home to Naval Submarine Base New London, 22 submarines, the USS Nautilus, and Petty Officer 1st Class Jamie Pearson - and his art.
And it’s not just submarines. Jimi Hendrix, Big Foot, ice cream, and a whale are permanently adhered to the walls of popular community eateries. But word-of-mouth demand for his sub-art has grown in recent months and Pearson is scheduled out until his retirement later this year.
“I am scheduled until my retirement but always open to invitations,” Pearson said of his wish to continue painting after he takes off the uniform. “They [the community] are familiar with the artwork, but they might not know me personally. My artwork is bigger than me.”
A Machinist’s Mate (Auxiliary) by day, Pearson has spent half of his career in the Groton/New London-area and claims Montville, Conn. as his home. His day-to-day includes administrative tasks, mechanical maintenance, and other routine Navy functions for Naval Submarine Support Facility (NSSF), New London, the waterfront maintenance support unit for Groton-based submarines. But when asked about his life as an artist, he said “my Navy job is Bruce Wayne, but my art life is Batman.”
It all started when he was invited to a local art show in 2012 to showcase his paintings.
“They displayed about 30 pieces of my art,” he explained. “And the first night there, everything sold off the wall immediately.”
Since that showing, multiple community restauranteurs approached Pearson to paint murals. His first large-scale mural was of Jimi Hendrix, which piqued the interest of the rock-and-roll icon’s niece Tina Hendrix in Washington State and her music academy for at-risk youths.
“Community service is important to me,” Pearson said. “We made up these nice little postcards and sold them for a buck a piece, raised $300, and I sent a check to the academy to help the kids out.”
Pearson called that his proudest moment as an artist. But it was his NSSF supervisor, Mr. Gary Dunn, who gave him some time off to paint the murals out in town – if he also painted one on base.
“At first it was a ‘can I get out a little early so I can paint’ and he was very supportive of it,” Pearson recalled. "But he said ‘before you transfer, I want you to paint a mural in the classroom.’”
“He turned an old chemistry lab into a classroom,” said Dunn of Pearson. “I called him ‘Rembrandt Pearson.’”
It was this mural of the beloved Submarine Qualification “Dolphins” that began his on-base reputation. He’s painted 14 murals on and off base since 2014. Most recently, he completed a mural at NSSF’s production control office of a submarine transiting the Thames River under the Gold Star Bridge.
“This mural serves as a great reminder of the importance of what the men and women of Naval Submarine Support Facility accomplish on a daily basis,” said NSSF commanding officer Capt. Dan Rossler. “A submarine coming up the Thames River at the end of deployment is a result of the hard work and coordination that occurred in the Production Control spaces between our repair organization and the crews of the submarines.”
Pearson is prepping two more murals at Naval Submarine Support Center (NSSC), New London, the waterfront administrative and logistics support unit for Groton-based submarines. Apart from mural requests, his graphic artwork is popular among shipyard workers in the form of stickers. Namely, his infamous “zombie dolphins” artwork are a favorite decorative piece for shipyard hardhats.
“It was just a fun, cartoony rotting flesh zombie dolphin,” Pearson explained. “But I made the image and somebody over there made a bunch of stickers, and all the shipyard workers that love submarines put them on their hard hats.”
Pearson is approaching 20 years in the Navy and hopes to continue his Bruce Wayne/Batman lifestyle in the Groton area after retirement – shipyard mechanic during the day, painting at night.
| Date Taken: | 03.09.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 03.09.2021 11:54 |
| Story ID: | 390915 |
| Location: | GROTON, CT, US |
| Web Views: | 1,003 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Submariner leaves artistic mark on the Groton community, by CPO Joshua Karsten, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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