Jeffrey Boozer, an Oakland-based artist, graphic designer, illustrator and DJ, died May 30. He was 49.
The cause was complications due to Type 1 diabetes, his family said.
Born Sept. 12, 1970 in San Diego County to Ann and Joe Boozer, he made his mark with creative efforts and interests as early as 6th grade.
“His first piece, which I still have, was a big drawing on a posterboard of Luke Skywalker,” Ann Boozer said. “That’s when we realized he had a gift and love for drawing.”
He also funneled pop-culture interests into active pursuits: “When he and his brother were 8 and 10 or 9 and 11, ‘E.T.’ came out and both of those boys just wanted those bikes. We found two and got them for Christmas, and they rode the wheels off of them.”
But she noted the awards he began earning in school art competitions didn’t limit his interest in collaboration, remembering how he spent part of his Orange Glen High School graduation day completing lettering on a mural with a friend, she recalled.
Getting his diabetes diagnosis at age 16 changed things for him, she recalled: “He took it in stride, although the care was very different then.”
But Boozer’s parents helped connect him with the Camp Chinnock summer program in the San Bernardino mountains for young children and teens with diabetes, and he learned to pass on crucial health-management lessons to others as a counselor.
“By the end of summer his first year” he was really into it, she recalled. “Several kids who were his campers wrote and said what an impact he had on their lives.” Boozer wound up working to help create and counsel at a separate day camp for area children who weren’t ready for a full summer camp experience.
A half-decade working at the camp led to two summer stints attending the American Diabetes Association’s National Youth Leadership Congress in Washington, D.C. for several years in the early 1990s, helping to shape the ADA’s national outreach to young people.
“Jeff taught me how a disease we both share and never takes a day off doesn’t control you, that instead [we] control it,” his brother Randy said in a social-media post.
But freelance-art dreams continued to drive him, fueling classes at Palomar Junior College through his 1994 graduation with honors from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
After stints as a freelance artist creating designs for Billabong and Quiksilver, Boozer moved to Oakland in 1995 with his then-girlfriend Joy A. Busse. The two married before later divorcing, but remained part of each other’s lives through friendship and co-parenting their daughter Sera Moon Busse and son Sean Busse-Boozer.
His interest in music bled into his children’s raising. “When I started getting into punk music, he would get me vinyl records for punk or metal bands,” Sean remembered. “We went and saw bands like The Mountain Goats three times in concert.”
“When Modest Mouse’s ‘Float On’ came on his iPod in the car, I made fun of it because it wasn’t Hilary Duff, because I was an 8-year-old girl then,” Sera said. “But he said ‘I think you’ll like it’ and it quickly became our song.”
Music led him in 2009 to a sideline creating concert posters, first for obscure indie musicians before drawing for larger, more popular acts over time.
“He would know of a band that he liked having a show somewhere in Oakland or San Francisco, reach out and say ‘can I do a poster and sell it at the show?'” Boozer’s partner Jeannine Jayne Komush said. “Eventually he branched out into posters that weren’t for shows. One of his favorite works was a burly man tattooed with names and logos of Oakland bars that had gone out of business.”
He also created designs for more than forty of Starbucks’ “You Are Here” and “Been There” city, state and country-themed mug lines. “You could definitely tell it was his work,” Sera said. “He’d say ‘sometimes they want designs to be more generic, less his flavor.’ He’d say ‘no, this is my thing, this is the way I do things.’ He had to balance his pride in his work with what he wanted.”
Music led Boozer to DJing in 2011, first as a collaboration with a friend at Oakland’s Bar 355 and the Rockridge Improvement Club, sparking a serious vinyl interest that led to record collecting, local and regional swap visits, and work stints at local stores.
“He was always trying to find a crossover between making people dance and surprising them,” Komush said. “He didn’t feel he’d had a successful night if he didn’t expose people to something new.”
“His selections for his vinyl DJ sets were so timeless and great,” fellow Bar 355 DJ Bryson Wallace said. “On top of all this, he made it a point to always speak to me and encourage me with a smile and sincerity. He had the energy you would look forward to running into. Even in bleak times, Jeffrey always made me feel hopeful and encouraged.”
He continued to create and contribute logos, fliers and other visual efforts on the side. An Oakland mural he and fellow artist Chris Huth painted in 2018 is still visible on 24th Street between Webster and Valdez streets.
Komush said she and Boozer’s family were continuing to relish in the ongoing connection with friends and family following his death.
“He had such an ability to slow down and engage with people and with the world in front of him, whatever that was at the moment. That’s what fed his creativity,” she said. “For him, the world always ran a little too fast. I think he would love it if everyone would slow down for more than five minutes every day and pay attention to what was in front of us.”
He is survived by his partner Jeannine Jayne Komush, his ex-wife Joy A. Busse, his children Sera Moon Busse and Sean Tyler Busse-Boozer, his mother and father Ann and Joseph Boozer, his brother Randy Boozer and sister-in-law Sara Boozer, nephews Chad and Josh Boozer, various aunts, uncles and cousins.
Although a celebration of life has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, plans are in the works for a gathering to showcase Boozer’s work and raise support for those with Type 1 diabetes.
Memorial contributions in Jeffrey Boozer’s name to support children and teens living with Type 1 diabetes may be sent to Diabetes Camping and Educational Services, a 501(c)3 charity that owns and operates Camp Chinnock, at 12045 East Waterfront Drive, Playa Vista, CA 90094, or visit www.diabetescamping.org.
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.
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Jeffrey Boozer, Oakland artist and DJ, dies at 49 - East Bay Times
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