“DON’T STOP MAKING” is the oft-repeated slogan of Weber Rations, a “portfolio community for amateur artists” originally created by Jack Sweeney and Thomas Euyang. They promote artists of all kinds, from filmmakers, producers, and editors, to musicians and writers.
“I have always had a fascination about art’s ability to look at life from the outside, and provide a means by which we can explain ourselves to ourselves,” said Sweeney.
Sweeney originally started Weber Rations as a platform for him to showcase his own artwork. It wasn’t until he realized that he needed the inspiration and support of his peers that he decided to make it a collective. This project is important to Sweeney personally “because it also functions as a kind of time capsule for the work that my closest friends poured a lot of time into.”
He also wanted to create an alternative to the “dry” portfolios that most artists are required to compile to showcase their work.
“I created Weber Rations as a means to turn the traditional portfolio page into one that has movement and functions as a place to share other friends’ portfolios, paying due respect to the artists in my community and the ways in which we inform each other’s work,” Sweeney explained.
Like many Colorado College alumni and students, he recognizes the difficulty of working on independent projects while on the block plan. “Once I have some more time,” Sweeney said, “it’ll be really fun to watch it grow.”
A Film major at CC, Sweeney has worked in both film and music, producing a “solo music project under the name ‘JACK LITE.’” He cites his dad’s collection of CD’s, which he referred to as Sweeney’s “education,” as a major influence in his life growing up.
“R.E.M., Springsteen, Clancy Brothers, the Doors, Indigo Girls, Paul Simon, Talking Heads, and the Smiths gave me a platform of thought as a youngster that would influence both my films and music in the future,” he explained.
COLD CUTS is Sweeney’s own album, created in 2013 during his internship in Los Angeles at Black Box, a music production company. For him, it is impossible to draw inspiration from only one source; COLD CUTS is a culmination of his experiences with “life, friends, women, and selling beach chairs.”
“Around that time in 2013, I was working a lot of industry jobs—worked at a hotel, sold beach chairs, washed dishes at a Denny’s, landscaped, and worked a couple nice restaurants too—and any downtime provided a means to think about melodies,” Sweeney said.
For Sweeney, developing Weber Rations has been a process. “The best experience I’ve had with it (and the original reason I created it) is that employers respond really well to portfolio communities that come across as professional and show the individuality of the artists—something beyond the typical modes of LinkedIn or a small personal portfolio.”
What Sweeney stresses most, both in interviews and in his bio, is the importance for any artist to have an online portfolio.
“What is nice about Weber Rations, though, is that it isn’t just for portfolios but also a community. I’m really excited in the coming months to add written word and additional mediums of expression.” Sweeney is always enthusiastic about welcoming new artists to the community. Anybody looking to get involved in some way can “check out the current profiles and modes” on the site, and email the social media representative.
Now, with the project developed, Sweeney explained that his favorite thing about Weber Rations is the freedom the site allows.
“[I appreciate] having relatively unlimited control over the site…to display written word or poetry in ways that couldn’t be carried out on a page or cookie cutter portfolio site,” Sweeney said. “The community allows us to stay connected in addition to providing opportunities for visitors to the site to be inherently cross referenced to other artists’ work.”
It happens often that a potential employer/buyer will be on the site looking for the work of a certain artist, but will get turned onto that of another as well, due to the community-based nature of the project. Weber Rations “kind of works like a brand—as a curator of the content, I am trying to create a vibe that doubles as a host for portfolios that have flexibility and depth.”
As mentioned before, Sweeney is excited to see the direction that Weber Rations moves in next. “We are mostly young, and I hope this site will follow these artists throughout their careers.”