Interviaw - Jawgem (ENG)

“Interviaw - Jawgem” by the Art Warriors

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Jochem van Aller a.k.a. JAWGEM since he was 8 is 21 y.o. born october 15th 1989 and lives at Den Haag the Netherlands. He is a 3rd year student and is studying illustration at the Willem de Kooning school of arts in Rotterdam. He also have done a year at the Royal School of the Arts in Den Haag and next year he’s about to go on his internship. He is still just coming up and out in the art world so not that much work yet.He has worked for Summer Sickness BBoying event, Ethnical file, The Image Festival, and some minor stuff mainly flyers, illustrations and paintings. He uses Copic or Steadler fineliners. cardboard, textured paper, craft paper, bleach, markers, posca paint markers, tape and stanley knives.

You cand find him here;

www.jawgem.com www.jawgem.blogspot.com

http://www.jawgem.com/

http://www.jawgem.com/

http://www.jawgem.blogspot.com/

http://www.jawgem.blogspot.com/


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What do you like more of your working process? The thing I love about what I do and how I work, is that when I come up with a concept or an idea, I try to think it out every step of the way before I start actually doing it. And when I start, i know what steps to take and how to go about it. but i also give myself the freedom that something doesn't go how I want it to i let it be and go with it. I can work on something very long and have a lot of patience on a piece because I know that the result will give me a lot of satisfaction. But when I get an assignment I try to look at it from a perspective where I try to make the result as best as it can be for the assignment, and that's nice because then you suprise yourself and discover new things by trying out other ideas and ways of working. I have one specific free style (notorious,questlove,boulala) wich requires a lot of time with the stippling and pointilism combined with aspects of graffiti. But when I finish a piece in this style it gives me a nice feeling knowing that Iʼve worked so long and put so much effort in to it. And usually Iʼ'm very happy with the result. But I'm still trying to advance. Always trying to advance!


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If you could make a film, what esthetic would it reflect? I would try to point out all the things I would find beautiful About things and how I see them. Movement, stills and portraits. I'd try to pick out what I find interesting about it and try to get the viewer to see what I find interesting about image. Who would you dedicate an illustration if it has to be the last. My father, he passed away recently. And I miss him very much. He always supported me in every way in becoming what I wanted to be and always let me be free in what I wanted to do and supported me in developing myself. In that aspect my parents always helped me to be what I wanted to be and let me be free in that. With wich music do you work better? When i'm really focused on gettin something done, and in somewhat of a rush I usually listen to instrumental music like all the Bonobo albums. but when I'm just working on my free work and that's not that stressed i listen to hip-hop or funk music, for instance Naughty by Nature, James Brown, The Roots, 9DW and some soundtracks from movies are also nice.


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Is there any book or film that influenceed your work? Iʼve always thought that there wasn't but I recently found out that one book had a REALLY strong effect on me and my illustrational style. It's the book 'AKIRA club' and it basically showes the Manga illustrations from the Manga movie AKIRA. And although i'm TOTALLY not a fan of manga or the style, I like the movie so I got the book. But the main reason this book is so important is because of all the rasterizing they use for their illustrations. this really inspired my to use stippling, rasters and other bitmap oriented patterns in my work. Also I recommend the movie Akira just because of the animation is neat and itʼs done with so mucht effort and care. Wich artist would you like to work for? Straight out of the top of my head I wouldn't know. I just really like working with people that have somewhat of the same mindstate that I do. Artists I used to look up to, used to be Shepard Fairey and Sam Flores. But I don't know if I would like to work with these people hahah. I guess if I like someone's work and they like my stuff too. I'm down with working together. And a similar mind state always eases the


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Wich are your favorite plastic artists? I love the toys by Frank Kozik. Not only like the dunnies but also his own designs with people like Mao and Stalin. I think I like him the most.

And wich brand would you like to design for? I would like to design for a brand such as Nike not a whole line but some products perhaps, also perhaps Kidrobot. Perhaps record labels like Mo Wax, Now-Again, Freestyle Records. I'd like to design for these labels also because i'm Dj-ing as a hobby and record covers and the records themselves are always a nice output for artwork. And these labels feature the kind of music i like and think i could design for. So i'm up for that! Where do you imagine yourself in 10 years from now? I think I'd like to have my own design/illustration studio and have it being succesfull by doing my/our thing. Hoping to have a steady amount of assignments where I can put myself in the work. And being able to travel and still be breaking (breakdancing) because this is my main outlet next to drawing,illustration or designing.


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Talk us about Hip-Hop. Do you believe in the West Side - East Side thing? Whoo, Hip-Hop.. I'm gonna have a long answer for this one. I feel hip hop is a culture where each individual no matter what age, color or ethnicity can express themselves.

I'm a bboy myself or breakdancer if you want. But I find a great deal of self release in the dance and a great deal of freedom. When I have a long day I can still go out and break and be able to think about nothing else than that when I'm breaking. That's why I do it. I think it's a beautiful culture wich is based around self expression and being together. People meet each other through it and you find people that are on the same level as you are. You learn about yourself in this culture. I think somewhere hip-hop music branched out so much and other things got to be more important. I think something as the whole westside, eastside thing evolved from that. I think it's a pitty that people went into that media hyped situation and some of hip-hop's greatest went down from it. Like biggie smalls or 2pac as the main examples. I think real hip-hop still lives but not as much in the music as it used too. I think in like something as breaking it's growing. But this is just my opinion because I wasn't around when hip-hop was originated. I only know what Iʼve learned from other people.

Hip-hop definitly is one of my main inspirations in my free work.


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Wich advice would you give to those who are starting in illustration? My main advice is to try to develop yourself and try to grow into your own person as an illustrator.

Don't go into trends. Try to make work that lasts, work that is good no matter the trends or hypes. Your own fascination is your biggest weapon and power as a designer or illustrator.

Thatʼs all, we thank Jochem for his time and for sharing with us his work and his knowledge.

AW


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Documents

Interviaw - Jawgem (ENG)