We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joe Ded a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Joe, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Learning my craft was no easy path. Riddled with the skeletons of hollowed markers and smashed carcases of paint tubes. The empty shells of once vibrant filled spray cans. Using my sable hair staff to manifest creatures from my mind took lots of time and concentration in the highest mountains.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

For I am the seventh son of a seventh son. The power to manifest my minds residents was bestowed upon me in the ancient scrolls. Raised to wield the creative power and harness my imagination. I started when I had moved to Colorado and my friend got me into graffitti and from there I trained my skills. I always enjoy when clients just say “do your thing” and appreciate your work for what it is. Not try to ask you to paint a different way. That they trust your process and vision. With my style, one thing is you cant tell that a piece was painted by me, I got a vivid color pallete and distinct character design.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

One story that comes to mind is in middle school, I was always getting into trouble for drawing, it just made me keep going. Soon everytime I was caught drawing in class I would get suspended, then two days, then eventually I got expelled but that fueled the flames of creation within my veins.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

For me a book or kit that helped shape my creativity was bruce blitz cartooning kit that my mom had bought me as a kid. Changed my life, and the next would be robert crumb, until then I didn’t know cartoons could be more mature with content not limited to society’s views.

Contact Info:

• Website: Instagram.com/joeded
• Instagram: @joeded
• Facebook: Joe ded art
• Twitter: Joeded1

Image Credits
First photo by jopen