I met Jaimie when NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS was invited to perform on Whoop Dee Doo, a “faux public access television show” which toured to Chicago as part of the Smart Museum’s Heartland Exhibit at Experimental Station in October 2009. We had such fun and I was so impressed by Jaimie’s style, sense of humor, and amazing ability to engage artists and audiences of all types–especially those considered (or considered themselves) atypical. It’s a rare thing to be able to tread the line between popular and conceptual art period, much less with the kind of ease and playfulness the fabulous Ms. Jaimie Warren embodies. She’s vivacious and impulsive without being intimidating or oppressively hip. She’s got an openness about her that comes with the territory: born, raised, and schooled in the Midwest, away from the trappings of coastal art worldliness, and close to friends, family, and fans who lap her up like puppies to a puddle. Her ties to the local community continue to fuel her work even as she rises to the upper reaches of the fine and pop art scenes, rubbing elbows and sharing sentences with everyone from Peaches to Wolfgang Tillmans and other prominent art icons of the past decade.