Today we’d like to introduce you to John John Jesse

Hi John John, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

During the mid to late 1980s living in a punk squat in the Lower East Side of NYC I was making gig flyers for my band Nausea. I did our logos and other art for us. I never took my natural ability as an artist seriously then. It was all about our band and message.
Fast foward to 2000, I finally got clean off a severe addiction and started painting casually to keep sane in between NA meetings. One thing led to another and eventually I was showing my work and they started selling and I finally got serious about my precious gift that I always had but often ignored,

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

Any career has its ups and downs. Sometimes it’s dire, LOL.
Sometimes you’re rich and and other times we’re eating ramen again. It’s the nature of any career in the arts whether it its music, painting, etc

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?

I’m a painter and have been a working one since the early 2000s. I guess the one painting that launched my career was a piece called “The Allnighter” done in (2002?)
It was passed around the early days of the internet around MySpace like wildfire, All print editions I have ever done of it has swiftly sold out. It’s my most proud piece but not necessarily my favorite one.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?

Just stay grounded. Never let that ego grow to much and love what you do.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @johnjohnjesse @nausea_nyc

Image Credits

Photo of me in studio by Rayna Polsky