HA: So how long have you been painting for?
JJ: I been painting seriously for about five years, but I've been drawing and making art my whole life.
HA: What got you into it?
JJ: Just drawing my whole life...painting seemed like the next step in the grand scheme of things.
HA: Have you been painting a lot the last few years?
JJ: for sure. i do a lot of live painting, at least once a week sometimes 2 or 3 times a week.
HA: you get a lot of stuff done then, doing live art?
JJ: Yea, it becomes studio time after a while.
HA: thats tight. Were you born and raised here?
JJ: I was born in wilmar minnesota, home of jenny-o turkey. i grew up in apple valley, moved out here at 17, went to school at tolleson, then the Art Institute.

HA: did you get a degree in fine art or painting?
JJ: Multi-media web design, that I dont use whatsoever now. Other than a little video I made, Smoke Break, I showed at the old Studyhall. i've done stupid graphic design commission work, but nothing crazy. i can't stand sitting behind a computer for long periods of time.
HA: Do you have a day job?
JJ: Yea.
HA: what do you do?
JJ: I work at a resort. But basically I've been able to work less and less these days.
HA: Have you been able to make some money painting?
JJ: Yea. More lately. Its never consistent. Thats why I can't go full time on the art just yet.

HA: what kind of influences do you drawn on? People, or ideas?
JJ: both i guess. i interact with a lot of people and have a lot of crazy ideas because of those interactions.

HA: I feel that with a lot of your work its kinda themed with a dark perspective... the characters features are exaggerated, old, malnourished. It feels as if theres a lot of despair worked in.
JJ: That probably comes form not using a lot of reference. Characters play into what I'm kinda going for. I've always liked just real deep bags under eyes...people that have paid their dues you know. We used to go to a lot of old folks homes back in the day. My dad would take us to these places just to talk to the people. That maybe has something to do with it. A lot of times I'll paint a lot of bald guys and its more or less, I dont want to say humanoid...buts its just a person...without their hair. so putting these people in random scenarios isn't really about the sex or background or whatever...

HA: raw humanity.
JJ: yea.

HA: I still feel like a lot of it...that arrow there is yours...? Right? Those people, are, I dont want to say unhappy, but I see despair in it. And one of the paintings at the Compound on New Years, has a staircase descending into a pit of people, and it read 'is this what you hoped for?' or something.
JJ: Oh yea, its called "All Yours". theres a lot of uncertainty in these times so its...I don't know, I paint whats going on, at least how i feel it. I can be as happy as I wanna be, but still theres all these underlying issues and bullshit that people look past. I'm into fucking magnets, the pyramids, and girls ovulating together, you know what I mean? People look past that stuff. Thats kinda what I'm into I suppose. I want to point out problems and then find solutions.

HA: Right. What about when you guys were doing the bird bar at the paper heart and you made the fold out fliers...where there was one image and then you folded it out and it revealed a darker underlying reality behind everything.
JJ: Yea. Those are just fun to do. having my own night was just a bonus for those fliers, inspired by the Mad fold outs. There's a lot of straight and narrow bullshit...people dont really see a grey area anymore and theres a lot of different ways to look at things. thats the beauty of that style of flyer, you can present one issue then show another side of it.

HA: What about some of those multi-piece pieces, like the calavera...what gave you the inspiration to do pieces are one giant piece when you stand back but each one has its own little panel and each panel has its own representation.
JJ: Its was just this idea I had. it started out with a self-portrait. It turned into little pieces of me, as it was an easy way to present the different sides to everything. The second one was a dia de los muertos piece, the la catrina, that was commissioned. I used that character as a symbol of death...so i called it celebrating death for 500,000 years. it had all these humanitarian traits that then were over shadowed symbolically by the la catrina character. the most recent one I did was called "bits n pieces of a dream", the overall look of it was the finale of the dream and each individual piece was either an actual scene from it or symbolic of it.

HA: SO you had someone buy the self portrait one?
JJ: Ya, dan diaz bought the self portrait and the la catrina was commissioned by Adrian Lopez.

HA: any offers on the last one?
JJ: Nah, but its going to be installed at the Lost Leaf for four months.

HA: I wanted to ask you about painting with your other hand, and painting with both hands. What brought this idea on?
JJ: I always thought about painting/drawing/writing with my other hand as a kid, and how awesome it'd be. so after becoming comfortable with the live painting routine i'd entertain the idea. it wasn't until i sprained my left wrist on a hidden house monday, it became appropriate. i just used my right hand, it was slower pace, but it worked. then from there, anytime i didn't have an idea for a live painting evening, i'd think of it as a live painting study and try a different exercise. i painted a few right handers in a row, then tried painting pictures upside down with my left, then my right. shit was just working out, so i said fuck it, i'll try two hands same time. that started out with just symmetrical faces, then paintings divided where the left side was painted with my left hand the right with right. i had a double hander piece in my last show at the lost leaf that depicted to hands coming out of the ground. i liked the idea of my left hand painting the right and right painting the left. now i'm working with painting independent mirror images at the same time. sometime in the near future i'm thinkin maybe upside down double handers with mounted mirrors, we'll see.

HA: Have you experimented with ambidextrous talents before?
JJ: growing up i'd try writing with my opposite hand, just fuckin around. i remember my brother drew a picture when we were kids, where he used both of his hands. the face of the character was all tech, then he used his other hand for the background. i thought it was original. recently i've been trying to write words with both hands at the same time, but outside in. it gives me headaches.

HA: Do you think there is a difference between left-handers and right handers in general, or painters in particular?
JJ: i'm not sure. my dad's left handed. i remember he had this coffee cup that read "every one's born left handed, only the strong survive". shit yeah. i think its pretty amazing how you'r left and right hands relate to opposite brain hemispheres. left is right and right is left. Crazy.

HA: Do you think that the school system corrals kids into favoring with their right hands so that they can be more easily manipulated and controlled?
JJ: my grandma told me stories when she was a little girl in catholic school, they made everyone write with their right hand. she told me it was a biblical reference. but i suppose it makes sense. left brain thinkers are practical. practical people are more susceptible to follow rules, but what do i know.

HA: Have you learned anything about yourself or painting from doing paintings with both hands or "switch"?
JJ: it's almost turned into this crazy spiritual experience. as long as i can remember i keep hearing one god and one love over and over. so i think of god as a common collective of sorts, and we are all a part of that one. but we live in a world of polar opposites much like our brains and its opposing hemispheres. so do we first find unity within ourselves? who knows. i do know the last time i painted at the blunt club was with two hands. i left feeling like i was wearing a head band all night. crazy.

HA: Where else are you gonna go with you art. Do you have any ideas or dreams for the future, like where you wanna go with itor what you wanna see out of it.
JJ: Just wherever it takes me. Its real delicate Isuppose. I'm trying to take advantage of every opportunity I can. Things come and go, things change. You know, cowtown... they cant have big openings anymore at the tempe shop...so...you know we had the new years party at the Compound with Kieth and that was cool but its not gonna be around forever. Just finding new places and new venues and new people that

are into it, or however I can help people out with it. Its never ending.

HA: What are your consistent live painting spots?
JJ: Every monday at the Hidden House, 7th ave and Osborn, and then I've been doing every shoesday at the Yucca Tap, Clown Shoes, with Brad and Mike. Thats been pretty fun. Blunt Club occasionally.

HA: You have any shows coming up?
JJ: Nothing really. I did like four in a row. I'm kinda taking it easy lately, trying to get my inventory back up. Maybe another Compound show soon, before that place is out. seems like shows are always last minute, so who knows.

HA: what about the all seeing eye? I've noticed that repeating in a couple of your paintings before or just that theme. Is that representative of control, or a god concept, or security?
JJ: Its kind of like a god concept. I always feel like theres this vast infinite pool of information that I should be able to readily access. It seems like your right there. For example, like a fly stuck in a screen door, and the top and bottom are open, but it's flying in there all day. until it sees the top or bottom it can't cant excape. but once it does its out, and its been there the whole time. And its that easy. Your stuck there in that fucking screen door. Thats kind of how I feel it. I think its used negatively these days, kind of as threatening symbol. i used it one of those bird bar fliers.
It says 'stressed? Your not alone.' Even the all-seeing eye has got his eye on'em. And everybody else is pointing the finger. And then you open it and it has this whole new light to it.

HA: its seems like a lot of times you'll draw a number of people or a crowd.
JJ: I see a lot of archetypes in people. People are people and everyone has there own roles. Its just gotten to the point where theres so many people...and theres this huge cesspool...you know I like to think that good can come out of it. Who knows. I think something drastic has to change for the normal heartland people to think differently.

HA: Do you think that there has been a place, a country, or a social system that people can look to for direction, or that people are able to create a system they can be proud of?
JJ: Who knows. I think something drastic has to change for the normal heartland people to think differently. i believe there's hope. people need to drop the victim mentality and find direction within themselves.

HA: You want to say anything else about painting or your work?
JJ: Persistence.