Joey Monsoon

Apr 12, 2009

Topic: Featured | Tags: , ,


His characters are weathered, like the overworked man across the street, a lonely kid roaming the streets or a woman desperate for attention – and quintessentially urban. Their flaws are familiar, residual, complimented by lucrative colors. Columbus based illustrator Joey Monsoon tells me that he is curious what attracts people to his work, I think it’s our ability to empathize.

Were you born and raised in Columbus? And does location play a role in your work?
I’ve lived in Ohio my whole life. I don’t know if it plays a role directly, but it probably does indirectly through the culture and stimulus that I experienced growing up – comic book shops and things like that. I don’t know if my work looks like “Ohio work”, but definitely the way I grew up and the things I saw work themselves into my pieces I’d say.

Do you think there is a good support system for artists there?
Yeah I do, I think Columbus is a great place for someone like myself. We have a great network of emerging artists who are great at supporting each other and great art spaces here. Chop Chop Gallery is incredible, there’s an arts district here called the Short North whose done an admirable job supporting local artists and then there’s also Junctionview Studios. It’s just a great town where people come out when you put up a show, you can always count on a big crowd and the sale of some work.

Thinking back now on your first solo show, what was the experience like?
Well my first solo show was just last year and I had done group shows, and had even curated a group show before that, so it helped me just in terms of being in charge. I’m really kind of new at this, I’ve only been showing for about two years. Having curated that group show at Chop Chop Gallery not only helped me get into the right frame of mind, not only producing enough work for the show, but running the show too, getting together the work and hanging it. I’m still in the mode where I’m surprised that people are interested in my stuff and flattered that people like it, so this is fun and exciting for me. Whether I sell anything or not, it’s great to have people walk in the door and show interest or happy to be there. These last years have been real fun.

Do you work from a photo reference or what’s in your head?
No photo reference, most of my stuff starts from really small little doodles that I kind of accumulate over a period of time. I’ll sort through those doodles, sometimes on post it notes, and while I do, I try to think of which ones will look good as paintings. I build up from there, but it all starts with what’s inside my head.

How did you get involved with CowBrow?
I actually met Dan Gerdeman, who’s responsible for bring CowBrow group together. I had seen his work in a show, really liked it, wrote his information down and kept it. I tracked him down on the internet, wrote him an email saying I really liked his stuff and struck up a conversation that made him check out my website, look at my stuff. We became fans of one another and then I went to one of his shows here in town about three or four months after I had spoken to him online. He explained that he was trying to put together a group of like minded artists here in Columbus and wondered if I’d be interested in joining. I’m up for anything and was flattered, so I jumped on.

So is it all secret-society like? Have to know someone to get in?
No, I wouldn’t call it a secret society, it’s just the brain child of Dan; he was in charge of putting this all together. He did a fantastic job, I think, of selecting people. We have about ten people on the group right now and the ages range from eighteen or nineteen to early forties. Its a great collective of people, styles and it’s awesome getting together because it opens the door on perspective from different people from different age groups.

Have you all ever thought of expanding the group to other cities?
Not specifically. When the group was first put together, the idea was that we would reach out, take our show on the road to different cities around Ohio representing what was going on in Columbus. And I think that idea didn’t necessarily come to fruition but what did come out of it was that the core group of people became really tight and fed off each other, helped and pushed each other and we started doing group shows around town with great success and turnout for sure. A couple weeks ago, the Local Strays show was packed, it was a great time.

What do you hope people get out of your artwork?
That’s a good question. I guess I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact people are interested in my work at all. One of the things I’m trying to get a better understanding of is my audience, what it is that they like or are getting out of it. There’s no deep message in any of my pieces, no real point where I’m trying to communicate something. They’re more about expression. So if anything, I hope when people see them, there’s something in the expression of the figure or character, something that they made a connection with. Emotion or gesture.

See more of Joey’s work here.

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2 Shouts to “Joey Monsoon”

  1. Interview with The Artery Magazine « joeymonsoon.com news says Apr 13 at 10:34 pm

    [...] did a short interview with Laura at The Artery Magazine last week. Be sure to check out their site. She and Matt are doing a nice job of bringing attention [...]

  2. matt says Apr 14 at 9:50 pm

    love the line work and colors on these.

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