@jackson.e.joyce

Instagram: @jackson.e.joyce Website: www.jacksonedwardjoyce.com  

1. What's your story? Where are you from?

I’m a painter, illustrator, and comic book artist from Louisiana.

2. Tell us about your aesthetic.

I make narrative paintings that use contrasting colors and light. There’s a lot of wide compositions, long shadows and unconventional color choices.

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

Gouache. I can’t walk into an art supplies store without buying a tube. One of the first things you learn in art school is how to make any color with a limited palette— old master style. I think that is really boring, so I buy all the colors. Gouache is so vibrant and versatile, why limit myself to three colors?

4. What is your artistic process like?

A little all over the place. Sometimes I’ll just have an idea, do a painting in my sketchbook, and that will be the finish. Other times, I do several preliminary drawings and color studies either in my sketchbook or in photoshop. There is a lot of back and forth between the computer and paper. Although, the final image is usually 95% traditional painting and 5% digital.

5. Who and/or what inspires your work?

Movies. I use film stills as inspiration for my compositions. Especially movies that emphasize light and shadow, like film noir. I also get inspired by mundane things: empty restaurants, highways, americana. I enjoy taking something monotonous and trying to present it in an interesting way. I’ve been struggling to make a comic where almost nothing happens.

6. What role does art play in your life? How does it change the way you view the world?

Sketchbooking is a huge part of my life. I’m always drawing what I see and trying to translate it into my visual language. If I don't have my sketchbook on me, I find myself staring at things, trying to remember how they look to draw them later. Lately I’ve been paying attention to how people hold themselves— their posture, the way they walk— and trying capture those subtleties in my work.

7. Where did you study?

Graduated from RISD Illustration in June.

8. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Hopefully doing more freelance editorial work, and making more comics. And I’d like to have a studio so I don’t have to work where I sleep. Something about working at a desk next to my bed makes me want to crawl in it.

9. What about in ten?

I’d love to publish a graphic novel.

10. What do you hope to achieve with your art?

Make people feel all the feelings.

11. Now, tell us a little more about you as a person: what is your favourite food?

My favourite food is probably Jambalaya. It’s a Cajun dish a make sometimes twice a week. I’ve slowly been perfecting my recipe. It might be my true passion.

12. Favourite book?

Hard to say. I read a lot of Paul Auster this year. Comic book-wise, probably Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. I also love anything by Michael Deforge.

13. Favourite genre of music?

Is Weezer a genre?

14. What are your hobbies?

I love to cook. I lot of artists I know say they are too busy to cook. They eat an un-toasted bagel on the way out of the house— this makes me sad. I devote at least two hours a day to cooking. It is meditative to me. I respect the ritual of eating.

15. If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

I would probably be in the restaurant business. I love to cook, so it would not be the worst. Sometimes I even joke about quitting art to be a cook. But the truth is nothing can replace making paintings for the rest of my life.