Why James Jean's art works

James Jean doesn’t seem to be wary of change. He moved a lot, from Taiwan to New York to LA. And, career-wise, his body of work’s probably admired not only for its individual successes, but also because its course confirms the artist’s range. He’s shifted from a niche following of comic books (award-winning DC covers, at that), past the more individualistic and cult-favored trenches of fashion, and straight to doing illustrations for one of its top dogs, Prada. Now that he’s done one of the more memorable art and fashion mergers of our time, he’s moved on from that too. From printed work, to store murals and now the scarf around your neck, when times are a-changin’, so does James Jean.

On his second time in Manila, armed with his new book, Rebus, Young Star talks to the Taiwanese-American visual artist, by way of illustrator Valerie Chua, as he talked about his daily routine (or lack thereof), Prada and the importance of an education.

VALERIE CHUA: How’s your stay in Manila? What made you come back?

JAMES JEAN: The weather’s great, so far. It was very rainy and cold in Taiwan… I think it was a couple of factors that brought me back here. Rebus was just out, and whenever I have a new book out, opportunities always present [themselves] to me for travel. Fully Booked really treated me well the last time and so when I was invited back, it just so happened that I was also coming to Asia, and the time just seemed right. From looking online, it seems like I have a pretty healthy audience here. So it’s good for me to come, meet the fans and the people who support me.

So you’re an illustrator and a commercial artist, and recently you shifted to fine art.

That’s right.

What convinced you to make that shift?

Well, having worked since I graduated from art school, there’s always the feeling that you wanna get the next client and you wanna work with this, you wanna win that award and be accepted to this annual and after a while, it felt like I had done everything I wanted to do in that world. And I was always interested in making my own work, so... Honestly, after having done the project with Prada I felt like I couldn’t really do anything else because that fulfilled everything that I was looking for in a career as an illustrator — in terms of prestige, exposure and compensation. It seemed like the perfect time to transition to doing my personal work. I want to stay interested in what I’m doing. So yeah, after seven or eight years it was time for me to move on to something else.

How hard was the transition to fine art? Since the market is a little bit different?

Yeah, the market’s really different but it felt pretty smooth to me because ever since I started working, especially in the comics field, there were a lot of collectors who were interested in the original art, who were interested in the artifacts from the published works. I think I was lucky in that. I was able to still engage with the group of collectors that only collected paintings while also having collectors that were familiar with my stuff through the comic and printed work. Since I had been selling my work, I established a sort of level of pricing for the work, so it wasn’t completely new to me. It was a slow and gradual transition.

I know you’re focusing on fine art right now, but is there any chance that you’d do illustrations and commercial art again?

Well, sure, if the right project came along. But I feel like I wouldn’t really be good at illustrating anymore — I’m much more temperamental than I used to be. Because I think doing commercial art, it’s a service industry. You’re trying to satisfy a client, and you’re trying to make everyone happy. Right now, I’m only interested in making myself happy, after all this time. So I might be more difficult to work with now.

Ready, set, go: James Jean seems to always be in motion.

So how different is James Jean before and James Jean now?

 (Laughs) I’m wondering how much I should say. I had a very tumultuous time when I moved to LA, you know, a lot of personal difficulties. I feel like now I’m more confident, more like a fully-functioning person… where before I felt I was crippled, in many ways. But now that I’m in my early thirties, I feel more comfortable with who I am and what I’m doing. Where as before, I think I was using the work as a way to escape from reality, and then now I’ve transitioned and moved on. There are certain things in my personal life that I’m able to engage in my art [I can] practice fully, without having to compromise. How’s that? (Laughs)

How does it feel to be an artist with your kind kind of celebrity status?

(Laughs) It’s strange, I recently heard that someone was teaching a class at an art center, and one unit of the class is titled, “How not to draw like James Jean.” (Laughs) I meet a lot of instructors and you know faculty members from other schools that go, “Oh yeah, all the students love your work,” and they say it with such disdain. I feel bad because the students, they really should be looking at art history, and learning about other stuff — and they shouldn’t be so… I guess, enamored with my work.

It’s strange cause you know, when I was in school, I just did the work I wanted to make and, it caught on with very big audience through the Internet, and it just kept on escalating from there. And I’m glad it’s still growing, even though the work keeps changing. But yeah, I mean, I don’t exactly feel that comfortable with it, but I can’t really complain too much.

Out of curiosity, what’s your daily routine like?

Well, I have assistants that come in every other day, and that keeps me pretty regimented. Because I know that people are coming into the house and I need to wake up, manage them and make sure they have tasks for the day. So I have Tuesdays and Thursdays to myself, and those days I go to my studio to paint. But honestly, every day is so different. There’s always too much stuff to do. I do crave a routine, but somehow it never happens.

Right now I’m trying to get to a point where I just simplify my life. But that never happens. Every day you wake up there’s all these e-mails, then there’s some unusual thing that happens. Something wants to meet you, you have to go to this meeting or this new opportunity or someone wants to buy some art, some customer hasn’t received their package… there’s always something.

Are there times when a piece or a project you’re working on isn’t doing well or isn’t working for you? What do you do to remedy that?

I just abandon it and move on to the next thing. I had a question today at the lecture, someone asked me if I was a perfectionist. And people may think that because I’m very exacting with all my projects; I like to design my books from the bottom up, and I’m pretty detail-oriented with all my stuff. But if you’re a perfectionist, it’s hard for you to know when to stop, know when something’s not working or when to move on. And I feel like my work, I’m pretty prolific and that’s only because I’m able to say “Okay, this is finished. It’s time to go on to the next thing.” So if something’s not working, I just do something else.

Did art school really help you in your success as an artist?

Art school definitely influenced me, and it definitely accelerated my development and it exposed me to art history, to a lot of other artists and friends that have since also become successful. Art school is pretty integral to my development and I’m very grateful for having chosen to go there.

So what’s next for James Jean?

I’ve been developing a line of jewelry and accessories and it’s an interesting thing for me to focus on at the moment. And I’m still painting, so I’m developing a body of work while also just exploring this new business of making objects.

Any advice you’d like to give to people who’d like to venture into art?

When I started out, I was hungry to get the all the prestigious clients and the awards. But I think the most important thing for a young person starting out is that they should only try to make work that they’re interested in, and that is true and honest to who they are. If you look at the careers of anyone that’s made it or become successful, they’ve all started out making work that they believed in, that they were interested in. And they did it obsessively and compulsively, and so people started noticing. So instead of, say, catering to a certain audience or pleasing someone else they should just do work that they feel like is the most interesting to them, at the time. Even though it might not be accepted or noticed in the beginning, they should just keep doing it until it becomes undeniable.