Jeremy Blake's short life was highlighted by great success, artistic
achievement and an intense romance but, ultimately brought down by
paranoia, despair, and ultimately suicide.
In October of 1971 in Fort Sill, Oklamhoma, a young married couple Anne
and Jeffrey Blake had their first child, son Jeremy. Father Jeffrey
worked as a real estate agent, and soon moved the small family to
Takoma Park, Maryland, a suburb of Washington D.C. Jeremy's parents
soon divorced and he split his time between his mother in the suburbs
and his father in The District of Columbia. Mother Anne later recalled
the young Jeremy filling notebooks with drawings, first of mazes, and
his own comic book characters, and later becoming fixated with drawing
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) type spaceships.
Jeremy attended various schools in the Takoma area, taking his first
art classes during the summer of his eighth grad year. Soon after, when
he was seventeen, his father died of complications from AIDS. Jeremy
eventually earned a bachelor's degree from the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago 1n 1993, followed by his master's in 1995 from the
California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. He had grown into a
strikingly handsome young man, and he reportedly met his future
romantic partner Theresa Duncan at a Washington area punk rock concert
around this time.
Jeremy moved to New York City, where he soon again encountered Theresa
Duncan, five years older than himself, who traveled in the same
avant-grade and literary circles as he. They became romantically
involved immediately, and quickly moved in together. She was a rising
star in the computer gaming industry, specializing in designing and
writing CD Roms for young girls. She helped Jeremy establish a career
by hiring him as an illustrator, and soon Jeremy was exhibiting his
computer-generated prints at galleries in New York and Washington.
Jeremy was photographed for Vogue Hommes magazine in 2000, since he was
such a glamorous rising star in the New York art scene. But the
ambitious couple soon decided to move to Los Angeles, where Duncan
intended to produce her screenplay. Jeremy continued with success to
work on his digital video art, which he described as "moving
paintings."
He was hired by
Paul Thomas Anderson to create
digital effects for a dream sequence in
Punch-Drunk Love (2002), and by
alternative rock music icon
Beck to design
art for his album "Sea Change." Around this time, his girlfriend
Duncan, having a difficult time getting her screenplay green-lighted,
began having what has been describes as "paranoid delusions" revolving
around The Church of Scientology. For unknown reasons, she believed
that powerful Scientolgists were putting up roadblocks to her success
in Hollywood. Jeremy soon joined her in her suspicions, and both would
rant to their friends about the evil vendetta that the Church of
Scientology had for them. They suspected almost everyone of being
closet Scientologists, and began alienating friends, co-workers and
most of their Hollywood connections. They began compiling evidence to
file a lawsuit against The Church.
The couple decided to move back to New York City soon after being
evicted from their rented Malibu bungalow because of erratic behavior.
They secured an apartment in the rectory of St. Mark's Church, and
began entertaining friends, and working on their separate projects.
Their paranoia over The Church of Scientology followed them and soon
both Blake and Duncan were sending emails to friends and acquaintances
enumerating their grievances against the Church. The couple hosted a
large fund-raising party for repairs on St. Mark's, and then refused to
attend it to the dismay of their friends and acquaintances.
A few weeks later, on July 10, 2007, Jeremy arrived home at the
apartment to find Theresa Duncan dead on the floor of their bedroom.
She had ingested a fatal combination of pills and alcohol, leaving a
suicide note telling Jeremy that she loved him and was at peace with
her decision. Friends of Jeremy's hovered over the young artist for a
week, in a discreet suicide watch. Jeremy eventually convinced his
friends that he was restless, and needed to get back to work.
On July 17, 2007, Jeremy boarded the subway saying that he intended to
go to his office at Rocksstar Entertainment. Instead he took the train
to the end-of-the-line at Rockaway's 122nd Street Beach. He removed all
his clothing and piled it neatly under a pier, placing his wallet on
top along with a short suicide note written on the back of a business
card. He walked naked into the Atlantic ocean.
On July 22 the body of Jeremy Blake was spotted by a fisherman four and
one half miles off the coat of Sea Girt, New Jersey, 35 miles south of
Rockaway Beach.
