Jason John - just an ordinary guy?

Do you encounter misconceptions about being an artist?

Most people think artists are eccentric by nature. I am just an ordinary guy. I know the person I have to be to when I walk into my studio to make my work, but when I’m out of the studio, I just do what ordinary people do (at least I think I do). People meet me and expect me to have rainbow hair or something. The lifestyle of an artist requires us to do a lot of research and reading, but I consider that to be part of the overall process of making work

Do you have a day job? What is it? What does it mean to you? I teach painting at the University of North Florida. I love to teach because it gives me the opportunity to make work that is not dictated by the market. I spent years working with galleries, so this is something I really was beginning to desire as I started teaching at UNF.

Have you had to make sacrifices in order to live your life as an artist? I don’t think making art in general is in anyway a sacrifice, but it can be difficult at times to get the general society to understand why such a purpose is so important to an artist. I do have to say that I have always had the most supportive people around me. My parents were always very supportive and my wife has provided more support than I can ever ask for. .

When you are in need of inspiration are there particular things you read, listen to or look at to fuel your work? Any practices to get you in a creative mind frame? I listen to music when I work. I have tried audio books and podcasts, but I can never pay attention when I’m trying to focus on painting. I guess it also depends on the kind of day I am having in the studio and the amount of focus I need. On days when I am doing more monotonous work, I like to listen to something more educational. I have been trying to get through Thomas Paine’s Common Sense for sometime.

What do you think is the function of art in society? Do art or artists have a responsibility to do anything in particular? First of all, I feel art is not activated unless an audience experiences it. I heard someone once mention that if art is not exhibited, it is no more than a glorified diary. I really like this idea. When I was an art student, I used to feel that art should heal the problems of the world. At this time, I believe the making is our responsibility. Since I have been teaching, I do really try and pass on to my students the ethical responsibility to make and share, hear out your audience, and go back and try to make the work stronger by focusing the communication. As an artist, I think I am responsible to make a work that is as strong as it can be.

What about yourself challenges you the most? I think pushing my students to make their best work really helps push my own work. They would call me out on mental or physical laziness as much as I would them.

What does creating art provide for you? All creative people have to make something, even if they don’t follow art as a career. For me, I believe art gives me a voice to speak to the general public about what I think about life and life’s purpose. Visual art asks the big questions in a visual way that writing and music cannot (at least for me).

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As a painter, I represent figures ensnared in environments of uneasiness and flux. Some or all of the figures in my paintings are partially concealed by veils or masks that obscure the face, one of the most important traditional subjects of painting and the psychological locus of personhood, relationship, and identity. Partially or fully concealing the identity of the subject alters the viewer's traditional expectation of intimate access to the represented individual. The veil or mask denatures the subject of the painting and marks him or her as object of the viewer's gaze. The characters in my paintings become part of the material environment of the painting. They can evolve toward empowered subjects or devolve into beautifully crafted objects deprived of identity through the subjective eye and imagination of the viewer, whose own identity and perceptual biases inevitably contribute to resolving the significance of the artwork.