Jason Sho Green Artist Interview

Step into the mind of Jason Sho Green, a self-taught artist who has only been developing his style within the last few years. After graduating from the University of Washington with the realization that electrical engineering was not what he wanted to do with his life, Jason began drawing, and has slowly begun to solidify his niche within the art community.

Which mediums are your favorite?
I really like to draw – that’s pretty much my main thing. I only started painting a year ago, because I got offered a show and I figured I should probably learn. I put out a bunch of really shitty paintings for that show, but for the past year, I’ve split my time between drawing and painting. I go crazy if I can’t draw for a day.

You can always draw.
I always just have dirty napkins and shit everywhere with little drawings on them.

What was your first show, and how did you get it?
My first show was last June. It was a group show with three other guys in LA. I don’t know how they found me, but I did Valentine’s Day cards that got really big in LA for some reason. I have a pretty good fanbase in LA, but nowhere else in the world. I lived there last summer because I moved down for a design job which fucking sucked. They told me I could pretty much do whatever I wanted as far as t-shirt design, but the week that I quit, I was designing Strawberry Shortcake t-shirts for Hot Topic. The show went really well. I sold like half the stuff I put there, even though I hated all of it. It just kind of took off from there, and I got a couple of other shows down there.

Do you have words of advice for people who are trying to get their work out?
Just keep working at it and don’t worry about getting shows. I never applied to get a show or anything. I’ve just kept working and putting it out there on the web or whatever. If it’s good, people will like it and tell you to do something with it.

Do you have a favorite piece?

I had one I just sent to Philly for a show out there. It was on this big cutting board I found in this house I just moved into, so now I don’t have a cutting board. First I just drew this kind of nasty girl on all fours and had it up in the house for a while. Then I painted it, stacked a bunch of pandas on her back, and then drew a big fat hamster dressed as a panda on the very top. It doesn’t really mean anything, but I just kind of like it aesthetically.

Do you have any characters you favor?
Lately, I’m kind of anti the whole character-development thing, because for me, it was always fun just to see how many different guys I could draw. When you’re a kid, everyone’s drawing little Tweety birds, and I just always tried to create my own stuff. My stuff is usually kind of all over the place. You’ll see pandas and little shit like that, but for the most part, I just try to do a whole lot of different stuff. I usually start drawing and think of some story that goes with it, and then finish it up based on that.

Do you like drawing real people or made-up guys?
I like to go back and forth. When I keep drawing guys out of my head, I can kind of feel my skills disappearing. I have to go back and do the realistic stuff once in a while, but for some reason the realistic stuff always ends up being funnier. I don’t know why.

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