IPaintMyMind Exclusive Interview: Erik Jones

What’s a typical day look like for you?

I wake up around 7ish, spend about 2 hours answering emails and drinking coffee. Around 9, I turn on NPR and start my day. I usually work on about 2-3 pieces at one time. As one section on a painting is drying, Ill switch to another painting and so on. I’ll usually paint till around 8pm, then have dinner and watch some TV (love me some Bob’s Burgers)… the glamorous life of an artist.

I use colored pencils, watercolor, a few different types of acrylics, water-soluble wax pastel, water-soluble oils on Rives bfk paper mounted to wood panel. I’ve been using these materials for quite some time now. Though it’s always a learning experience.

First off, thank you!! This was my very first limited edition print. I had one other through Spoke Art Gallery, but City was all me. I went with a smaller size so anyone could afford it. The print itself was pretty flashy. I designed it to have a back, so there’s substance on both sides. This made the entire print feel more robust, like you could stick it in a plexy sleeve and have it on your coffee table for people to hold and flip around. A coffee table print, ha. Well, whatever it was, people seemed to like it. I can’t wait to do more!

I don’t necessarily consider myself very “modern” or hip to technology but I do spend a lot of time on my computer finding new art AND music. Sometimes I’ll dedicate a day to just doing that.

Awesome, we can relate.

Tumblr and ffffound.com are great for finding random art. But I also spend a lot of time at The Strand here in NYC. It’s a great book store with an entire floor dedicated to art. My own little heaven. I find a lot of collective graphic design books there and I LOVE those. I definitely enjoy flipping through pages in a book or magazine more then trolling the internet, but the internet is a fantastic tool.

As far as music goes, I like to find a band and explore other bands that sound like said band. The web siteLast.fm does a really good job of categorizing similar bands. I’ll spend hours finding new music. In fact, I just found this group called Lapalux yesterday.

Pretty much exactly that, though I would also throw in “organic pattern.” It’s the glue that holds it all together. You can find variants of repetitious pattern in all my work if you look close enough. As I’m creating these paintings I’m really focused on how the composition feels. Is it flowing the right way, is my eye being lead around the composition in a pleasing manner? I spend a lot of time looking and visualizing new shapes and different ways to engage the viewer. For as structural as my art appears, it’s a pretty organic process.

I wouldn’t say they belong to a different world (but perhaps I do). I get very inspired when I watch Sci-Fi movies. Usually a painting follows. I’m just so fascinated with our view of the future. Perhaps deep down inside I’m hoping some fashion designer will get inspired by my work and start creating suits that take on these forms. Can someone make this happen??!!!??!!

I was born In St. Petersburg Florida, where I lived until I was about 26, then moved to NYC.

New York has definitely been my greatest influence. I try to go to a lot of openings here in Chelsea (gallery district here in NYC) and every time I go, I come back ridiculously inspired! Not many other places have done this to me. I think maybe San Fransisco would be second but a very distant second.

Films: Gattaca, Vanilla Sky, Clueless ( I’ll stop at 3, I seriously could go on forever)

Bands: James Blake, Seal, Sigur Ros, The Budos Band, The National, Tim Hecker, Veto. (and again, a million more). I’m really into original scores for movies too. My all time favorite composer would be Michael Nyman. His compositions make me weep like a child. Probably the most emotional, amazing music I have ever heard. Dustin O’halloran does it to me as well. That’s probably what I listen to the most. Sad, depressing, emotional orchestra/piano music. I kind of love being miserable.

It makes you feel alive…is that weird?

I have a number of commissions that are coming along nicely and a few new bodies of work going out to different galleries all over the US. At the moment, I’m really excited about a group show here in NYC that’s happening on October 5th. This is when I’m debuting 8-10 paintings that are an abstraction of my figure paintings. Like my figure work, these paintings are bright and colorful but focus more on the relationships between abstract structural forms and nonrepresentational organic pattern. Really excited about this stuff. Look for a lot more of that in the future.