We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jay Jones. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jay below.

Jay, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?

“Why does it look so….scary?”
I’ve heard some variation of this my entire life. I’ve always been on the non-conventional side, interested in the morbid and the macabre, what lurks in the dark. Unlike most of my peers growing up, I gravitated towards darker/weirder media (think Meaty McMeats, Horror flicks, and anything you’d find in old school Hot Topic) and it definitely showed in my art. I can’t count how many times someone accosted my mother about the contents of my sketchbook. I remember several times being sat down and asked “is there something wrong?” Or “are you okay?”. To the outside world I appeared to be a quiet, loner, obsessed with skulls and guts, but on the inside, I was just a curious kid. I didn’t understand why no one wanted to see what was in the shadows, to peer into the darkness and see what we would find.
It almost made me want to stop creating. I thought something was wrong with me. It wasn’t until I got to college and was surrounded by other “weird” kids did I truly see the value in what I was creating. There was a space for me, and it was people like me who would pave the way for those that would come after me. Other little weird kids would see my art and think that they could do it too! That they belonged.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

At my core I am an artist who’s just trying to push my creative energy out into the universe. My plan is to dabble in a little bit of everything: stationery, children’s books, graphic novels, whatever piques my interest. I’m currently working on my fourth activity book/journal, and hope to start my graphic novel; By the Roots: A Grief Anthology by early 2025. My number one goal is to share “ME” with the world, to be able to point to something and go “hey that’s what my soul looks like!”

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

SHARE. OUR. WORK!
A lot of times people think that it’s like the old days where you would need to drop hundreds of thousands of dollars on a piece to be a patron of the arts, yet one of the key ways that art thrives is by simply creating a nurturing and safe environment for people to experience it. Tell your friends about the cool book you saw, share an artists post on social media, draw your own fanart! Keep the creative energy alive! Creative pursuits are like a garden, tend to it properly and you will be fed for a lifetime!

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

If the Internet went down tomorrow, no one would know that you own a digital copy of the Mona Lisa. BUY PHYSICAL MEDIA!!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/JustJayDesigns
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justjaydesigns?igsh=MXJ5bDliMWxndHByaQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justjaydesigns
• Other: https://ko-fi.com/justjaydesigns