I am extremely saddened to say that artist Jeremy Blake is presumed dead. 
[Update: his body was found & identified July 22.]

He disappeared over a week ago, last seen walking into the ocean at Rockaway Beach.  An apparent suicide note, along with his shirt and wallet were found under the nearby boardwalk.

Among other places, like the Whitney Museum, Blake's work is featured on Beck's 4 different album covers for Sea Change.  It's also part of the film Punch Drunk Love.  Remember those hazy, colorful dissolves throughout that film and its titles?  That's Jeremy Blake's art. 

A couple of years ago I went to see an exhibition of his work at the San Francisco Modern Museum of Art.  I can't remember ever before making a point of going to see an exhibition by a contemporary artist.  I'm a big fan.  His pieces are very visceral and moving.

It is extremely tragic that he is gone, and so suddenly.  The backstory is truly bizarre:

A week or so before his assumed suicide, his girlfriend of 12 years took her life in their NYC apartment.  The article I read in the LA Times says that the couple's behavior had become erratic and that they were increasingly paranoid that Scientologists were stalking them. ( ! )

A body was found by a fisherman today off the coast of New Jersey but it has yet to be confirmed as the body of Jeremy Blake.

It's odd to think we will probably never know what happened to these two creative people.

Here's a video Jeremy made for Beck's song "Round the Bend."  It gives a better idea of what his work is really like since his pieces were usually on screens: moving and flowing and growing.