So one of the guys around the neighborhood that I grew up in, grew up to be famous. He was in my brother’s clique more than my own, so I knew him but really not that well. Sadly, he’s made himself more famous by committing suicide.

At this point I don’t think I would have recognized Jeremy if I saw him on the street, I don’t think I’ve seen him in 15 years, but he was probably involved in my first ever game of D&D, two of his paintings that he did when in was in high school (or before) hang on my dining room wall. It was clear even then that he had great artistic talent. He’s gone on to show that in various ways.

He’s done a little bit for everyone. He’s spent that last several months up until his death as a graphics designer for Rock Star Games. He did an artistic sequence in Punch Drunk Love a movie starring Adam Sandler. His art is part of the permanent collections of both the SF and NY Museums of Modern Art among others. He was scheduled for a solo show at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in DC in October (I hear it will still happen). His Suicide made the front page of the Style section of the Washington Post. Googling him provides a wealth of information about his life and death.

His funeral is tomorrow at 1pm and I may acquire the information on the logistics of it. I feel a need to go, but I’m not really sure what drives me. I normally have a rule about funerals, I don’t think it’s proper to attend if I’m connected to the person by what they did rather than who they were. With Jeremy, I’m not sure whether it’s an issue of what he did or who he was (or I remember him being).

I do know hearing of his death saddens me.