Tribute to Jefferson From His Mother

I recently saw a DVD version of Julius Lester's picture book, “John Henry” illustrated by Jerry Pinkney and narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. After John Henry beats a steam drill tunneling through a mountain his heart stops and he drops dead at a very young age. The town's people shed many tears over him. Then someone speaks up saying, “Hold on! Dying is what we all must do. There's nothing unusual or unique about it. It's how you live your life that really matters.” This message resonates with me as I struggle to make some sense of life and death.

I believe my son lived his life to the fullest with joy and sharing with friends. Over five years have past since my son's death. It's difficult for me to talk about my son taking his life and I wake up each day surprised that I'm still here and living through it. Painting helps ease the pain especially the paintings inspired by Jefferson. We were very close. We were the yen and the yang. He was the masculine version of me. He was me only more. He was more talented, more artistic, more sensitive, and more caring. In a perfect world his caring would have fit perfectly. That sounds odd, but I feel it's possible to care too much in this world. I have learned however, that when life throws us these kinds of curves we must never stop caring.  Jefferson wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

The Jefferson Knaup Memorial Scholarship in the Media Arts was established at City College to provide financial assistance to new artists. In his short life Jefferson created a tremendous body of work that will be his legacy. I want other talented City College students to receive this scholarship in my son's name because Jefferson was a student teacher at City College. I want people to know and remember what he accomplished. His philosophy was that a community needs to support the arts and the creative spirit in order to grow. Through this scholarship he will give life to this spirit and his legacy will live on.

San Diego City College Foundation 16th Annual Scholarship Awards

2008 Recipient: Liliya Drubetskaya

2007 Recipient: Liliya Drubetskaya

Artist Bio

Jefferson L.Knaup was born in San Diego, California on March 9,1973. He was an alert and inquisitive child with a penchant for adventure. From birth he was always on the move and was walking at nine months. Sometimes these traits got him into a lot of trouble. Like at age one when he stopped traffic on University Avenue until the neighbors rescued him and brought him back home before his mother even realized he was missing. After that she put the door latches higher. Then there was the time the OB lifeguards pulled him out of a rip current when he was five years old.

His mother believed his birth sign, Pisces, was appropriate because they always lived at or near the beach. He loved the ocean and wanted to surf but he couldn't persuade her to buy him a surfboard. She thought a skateboard would be more affordable. In the long run it probably would have been cheaper to go ahead and spring for the surfboard because she ended up buying him new skate shoes every couple of weeks and new trucks and decks every couple of months.

From early childhood, art in living color was in his blood and music was his passion. At age eight he loved to perform and break dance toTom Tom Club's “Genius of Love”. Hip Hop was his favorite music and Kiss was his favorite rock band. After graduating from University City High in 1991 he tried to break into pro skateboarding for a while. After a few knee injuries and trouble finding sponsorship, he teamed up with some other skaters to film skate videos for a living.  Mostly just hanging out with his skater friends and being cool was his highest priority.

Then he met a beautiful young lady named Arti and his priorities changed. She was an American born first generation East Indian from the Bay area attending college at UCSD. In her senior year her parents sent her to India to be immersed in their native language called Hindi and she invited Jefferson for a visit. He was only 20 years old but when he told his mother she thought it was a marvelous opportunity for her son to travel so she offered to match him dollar for dollar to help finance the trip. Arti's language class ended after a month but Jefferson lingered there for another month of adventure on his own.

Travel became a high priority for him after that, in fact, he vowed to never stop. He would soon make a couple of trips "across the pond." First, he visited France with a French girlfriend named Sophie. Later he would say to his mother, “I could live and be totally happy for the rest of my life in the French countryside.” The next trip was to London. He said he wanted to move there because all the British girls loved his long hair. He would have had a lot more fun but his traveling companion wouldn't let him out of her sight.

In 1994 he moved to the Bay Area where he started his own company selling T-shirts featuring his original artwork. However, music was still his first love and his goal was to record his own experimental electronic music. He soon found his way to Berkley's Starry Plough and Girl George's open mic. Jefferson was a regular with ‘the swim' on his acoustic guitar. DJ work was a way to meet other musicians, earn money, and have the freedom to perform his own original music at the same time. He leased a beautiful live/work space in an Oakland warehouse that provided himself and other musicians and artists the opportunity to showcase their work.

“During the course of my life I have come to realize two very important philosophies involving personal growth (as an artist). The first is that (an artist) must live among people who are open-minded and those who support the arts. An artist is only as productive as his or her environment. For example a community that supports the arts will grow and give life to new and veteran artists. Where as, a community with its priorities elsewhere may stifle or suppress the creative spirit.” “The second thing is setting goals and being focused to take dailysteps to accomplish those goals. Since I began setting goals for myself, I've grown by leaps and bounds. I feel proud of my accomplishments which give me confidence and strength to move forward. I can conquer another hurtle with ease, thus growing as an individual.”

Ever searching for that elusive community of artists, Jefferson moved back to San Diego in 1999 just in time for the new millennium celebration. He quickly found the pulse of the local music scene in places like 7th and Broadway downtown and NVS Productions. He collaborated with video artist Lara Sievert, creator of Show and Tell Productions “Kaleidoscope” to do a monthly multimedia series at VozAlta. The founder and executive director of the World Beat Center, Makeda Dread, proclaimed herself his black mama. He found a mentor in Jerry Fenwick, a music professor at City College.

He completed the Interactive Media Certificate Program (IMCP), a fifteen hundred-hour nine-month course at the North City New Media Center. Through the program he submitted a first place winning entry, titled “New Tribal,” in the Audio Category of the 2004 Media Arts Award Competition, sponsored by Sony and the Multimedia and Entertainment Initiative of the California Community Colleges' Economic and Workforce Development Program. When presenting the award, initiative director, John Awakian, stated that Jefferson's music was the work of a mature artist. His advice to Jefferson was, “Get an agent.”

1. IDEAL WORLD
2. CUTTER
3. COBRA
4. ZARK MATTER
5. WATER
6. TRUE SCOPES 
7. NEW TRIBAL
8. SLOW STRING
9. SEXY SPACE LOVE
10. SET FREE
11. oo9
12. AMB KISS
13. 420b