WORDS BY DANIELLE SIPPLE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY HILARY WALSH
STYLING BY BRITT BARDO @ MAGNET
MAKE UP BY MICHELLE MUNGCAL @ ATELIER MANAGEMENT
HAIR BY COLEEN CONWAY @ AIM
OUTFIT BY ELKIN

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Danish-born song-writer, producer and performer Oh Land is metaphorically out of this world. Her musical styling is laced with ethereal qualities that are deeply rooted in the classical dance and musical training of her youth – her mother is an opera singer, her father an organist and she went to ballet school. “I think you can only rebel against something if you know it well.” And rebel she has, without forgetting where she’s been. After giving up on ballet after a major dance injury Oh Land suddenly had space in her life for music or as she puts it, “Music found me.”

Movement remains a large part of her performance as well as an integral component of the overall sound of her music. Many of her songs from her discography have a pumping percussion element to them “I do miss using my body for expression,” she admits, “which is why I like being physical on stage. And drums are the most physical instrument – I want [the music] to feel physical.” And the dream stage for such a physical expression? “I think the Taj Mahal, with a lot of elephants wearing ear plugs and the Kirov Ballet dancing with me.”

Despite her roots she admits that most of her career and success as a musician has been since she left Denmark – she now lives in New York. “I started my music career with [Danish label] Fake Diamond Records, but I moved soon after and continued making music in many places, so I just consider myself a musician from Oh Land.” Her artistic inspiration is the year 2050, even though she confides that she has no specific idea around that futuristic reality. “I’m definitely inspired by forward movement, innovation, things industrial and mechanic.”

Moving forward in mind, her latest album is an American self-titled release that came out earlier this year, a full three years after her first album Fauna and she’s learned a lot in the interim, especially working with heavy-hitting producers like Pharrell Williams, Dan Carey and Dave McCracken. “When I went in to this new chapter in my life I met a lot of new people,” she says. “This business has taught me a few lessons and I think that I have become less naive. Things that would have taken me two days to realize myself would take 20 minutes with them.”

With the new album loose in North America, Oh Land is about to take her live stage show on the road with Sia and Ximena Sarinana. “I’m excited to go on the road with Sia, because I think that I can learn so much from watching her perform.” And when she’s not touring, she’s back home in Brooklyn thriving in the big city. “When things are very hectic around me, I find it easier to rest, which is why New York City is probably a good place for me, although I may have a little bit more black in my wardrobe these days.”

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WORDS BY MIKEY LIPKA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHNATHAN CRAWFORD

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Paul Cary’s musical journey started in his grandparents’ farmhouse in Decorah, Iowa when he was 12. “I was watching Saturday Night Live when Neil Young came on and played Rockin’ in the Free World. It blew my mind. I got an acoustic guitar a couple of months later for Christmas and have been beating on guitars ever since.” Twenty‑something years later Paul has banded together a tight-knit group of like-minded musicians, notably Johnathan Crawford (drums) and Adam Pely (Farfisa) to make up Paul Cary and the Small Scarys. “We decided to drop the bass for a while and try something different,” he explains. “The organ creates a good atmosphere.”

Now living in Chicago working on a new Scarys album, Paul has surrounded himself with the tools to do what truly makes him happy… construction. “My ideal environment is being surrounded by wood, saws and nail guns during the week and hanging out with friends on the weekend. I recently started my own construction company called Cary Carpentry & Construction, in honor of my grandfather’s business Cary’s Machine & Welding. It’s just me so it’s a small operation, but it works.” After the work boots come off, Paul excites ear drums aplenty with his band’s one-of-a-kind sound that seems to tune in to a multitude of musical eras from the last half-century. “I don’t think 2011 suits me,” Cary admits, “but I’m having fun on stage now. These are very interesting times, and there are still songs that need to be written.”

Cary once lent his vocals and guitar skills to the gritty punk band The Horrors while driving a taxi cab in Iowa City. “My early twenties was a very trivial part of my life, of anyone’s life, I think. I am more comfortable in my own skin now. There was a time and place for The Horrors but what we are doing now is exactly what I want to be doing. I guess I’m not a pissed off 18‑year‑old anymore. I’m a bitter 33‑year‑old.” Cary was sitting in that taxi cab when he impulsively made the decision to up sticks and move to Chicago. “I was waiting for a fare in downtown Iowa City when a girlfriend of mine walked by and said, ‘I’m moving to Chicago and I need a roommate.’ I said, ‘I’m in, when are we leaving?’”

Cary’s on-a-whim move to the Windy City saw him develop his music and led to a chance meeting with Scarys drummer Johnathan Crawford. “I was playing a solo set at a festival in Missouri four or five years ago. Halfway through the set John jumped up on stage and started playing the drum kit set up from the previous band. We have been playing together ever since.” Their musical appreciation and understanding of each other is such that Crawford recorded half of the songs on Cary’s solo album Ghost of a Man. “John has a great ear and knows exactly what I’m going for.” Crawford is also behind the website CandyDinner.com, which features a collection of albums by new and successful artists, including Cary, that you can download for free and has helped the band get their music to fans fast.

Paul is a breath of fresh air. He doesn’t conform to popular trends and sticks to what he does best – playing live. His honest, gritty sound can be heard on 2010’s Ghost of a Man. “I guess I try to write songs that I would want to hear,” he says of the album. “If someone else likes it, that’s great. If not, then that’s fine, too.”

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WORDS BY DARYA KOSILOVA
ARTWORK BY GREG EASON

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Within every human there is a world, a place, where the mind is set free to explore its own survival, to ask itself questions, to scratch at the cycles of life and death. This place thrives with strange creativity as it celebrates the joys of its own accomplishments and mourns the battles lost to pain. Many nights are spent in this world by Greg Eason. While people on his side of the world sleep, the 26-year-old, “semi-bearded” artist living in London, England is producing drawings and paintings that are intricate and mysterious yet have a bare visual simplicity and harmony that set the eye, but not the mind, at peace.

Eason, a graduate of the Norwich School of Art, has steadily created an immense body of work that not only showcases his formal craft and attention to detail but haunts the viewer with conceptual narrative and isolated beauty of the subject matter. Eason states, “I guess I’m drawn to things beautiful, sad, and dark all at the same time.” Taking his inspiration from artists such as Alexander McQueen and Damien Hirst, Eason’s drawings depict skulls, spotted eggs, winged creatures, and the odd lonely figure that is isolated by a void of open space. “A lot of my work explores the ideas around life and death. They are the only sure things that we have. We create a story for ourselves in-between… but it’s all rather silly,” he says.

The monumental beauty in Eason’s work lies in the precise architecture of the world his creations live in. Every object hovers in the lonely space of the paper as if to say that there is a purpose in its life; a point to it all. If anybody is wondering what lives inside the eggs Eason draws, he’ll tell you, “It’s up to the individual as to what the egg contains, if anything at all. The egg may be symbolic of life, but that doesn’t mean that life is present. It can simply be a thought,” he explains.

By looking at his work, it’s no surprise that Eason is a self-proclaimed minimalist. “Clean white desks and desktops. I don’t handle mess very well; I can’t think.” Eason’s workspace resides in a warehouse where he chooses to work “at night, with headphones, and cigarettes.” When asked what song would play if his artwork were fed into a device that turned it into music, Eason seamlessly stated Endorphin by Burial.

Eason’s latest projects have secured him a spot with The Contemporary London Gallery where he had recently released prints of his work, as well as transformed his characteristic aesthetic into T-shirt designs. When Eason is in a debate about the balance of commercial success versus fine art acclaim, he strongly keeps to the integrity within his practice. Priority for him lies not in commercial distribution but in the notion of staying true to what fuels his creative process.

A lifetime of nocturnal practice awaits Greg Eason as he continues to draw out his discoveries on life, death, and everything in between.

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WORDS BY BROOKE STONE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JUSTIN TYLER CLOSE
STYLING BY JILL LINCOLN
HAIR BY JOHN D FOR ALTERNA @ STARWORKSARTISTS.COM
MAKE-UP BY KATE LEE FOR CHANEL @ STARWORKSARTISTS.COM
MANICURE BY BETH FRICKE

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Leslie Bibb will make bitter people angry. Why? Because she’s so darn happy. From Wrist Cutters: A Love Story, the Iron Man films and TV shows like Popular, ER and Crossing Jordan to her latest comedy Zookeeper, her work has been diverse and abundant. “I feel pretty good about where I am in the business,” she says. “I have a lot of gratitude for this life and I am proud of myself, standing where I am today.” She should be.

In a town where most actors traipse from one unsuccessful casting call to another, desperately seeking that breakout roll, Bibb’s path was a little different. Oprah Winfrey found her in a modeling contest when she was just 16. “That turned my life upside down,” she says. “I went to New York City and traveled the world. It afforded me a great life and allowed me to study acting, while still having a beautiful apartment and not struggling financially. I call modeling my bartending job. That time was amazing and crazy and normal and abnormal all at once.” Want to know what kind of crazy teenage models get up to when they’re traveling the world? She’s keeping tight-lipped on that one, “None of your beeswax, but I had fun.”

Bibb is known for her positive outlook and refusal to dish the dirt, which has helped her keep her chin up when she’s missed out on parts she really wanted. She won’t say which ones, but rather sighs knowingly and says, “Ah, yeah, it’s Hollywood.” Rather than dwelling on what she missed out on, the upbeat actress cherishes each project she’s asked to be a part of. “My last job is always my favorite and the one I’m most proud of. So, right now, it’s Zookeeper and Good Christian Belles. I guess because they’re the freshest in my mind and what I am entrenched in that makes them my favorite. However, I love all the stuff I’ve done.”

ABC’s Good Christian Belles stars Bibb as a single mother and former high school mean girl who returns to her Dallas hometown and her mom’s house after her marriage ends in scandal and must then face the girls she terrorized as a teen. “The schedule and the speed at which television operates is a little intimidating,” she says of her new job, “but I am over the moon about working with [Sex and the City creator] Darren Star, [Steel Magnolias writer] Bobby Harling and all these funny, talented women. But, I imagine by December, when we are done, I will be pooped.”

You’d think with a schedule like that, Bibb would have no time for a social life, but you’d be wrong. She’s currently dating Iron Man 2 co-star and Lab Magazine cover alumni Sam Rockwell who knows a thing or two about the life of a hard‑working actor. Does Bibb get all green‑eyed being with someone who might have to make out with other actresses for a role? “I don’t get jealous about love scenes,” she says. “Every guy I have ever dated has been such a shit-show about them and made me feel so guilty about a part of my job I can’t change or help. I won’t do that to Sam.”

Aside from some unusual websites dedicated to her fabulous feet on which she says, “That Web can go squirrelly on you fast. Don’t get me wrong, I have some nice feet, but that’s overkill. Someone is very, very bored!” things are going rather swimmingly for Ms. Bibb. And what does this optimistic lady want for her future? “I think that is a very intimate question,” she says, “And I am keeping the answer between me, my dreams and God!” Of course she is. Just like a good, completely loveable Christian belle.

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WORD BY TILLY STASIUK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JUSTIN TYLER CLOSE
STYLING BY JENNY RICKER
GROOMING BY ROSIE JANE JOHNSTON

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As a comic actor and vocal virtuoso there’s no doubt Hank Azaria has made you laugh. In what he refers to as his “longest relationship” the Queens native has voiced a whole banana‑colored bunch of Groening guises in The Simpsons. So when Sony announced he was their lead baddy in one of this year’s biggest 3D flicks The Love Lab cracked a huge smile. With a set of Emmy and Screen Actors Guild awards and an illustrious film career under his belt, demonstrating his talents once again as an evil balding wizard for The Smurfs was water off a duck’s back.

Based on the original comic strip and the 1980s cartoon TV series, The Smurfs sees an almost unrecognisable Azaria take on the live-action role of devious potion-mixer Gargamel. The film follows a band of the animated miniature do-gooders (voiced by the likes of Jonathan Winters, Katy Perry and Alan Cumming) as they are set upon by Azaria’s nasty Smurf-hunter and chased out of their picturesque village only to wind up in the Big Apple. With a little help from some new human friends (Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays) they must find their way back before the black-caped, bucked-teeth, big-nosed meany, accompanied by a ginger feline sidekick, tracks them down and captures them for his own evil ends.

“He is a man obsessed with little blue people and married to a cat. As a result he’s fairly easily stressed out,” Azaria says of his latest character’s unusual personality. He arrived at Gargamel’s distinctive voice after narrowing it down from two or three different options, resulting in a suitably wicked Eastern-European lilt. Azaria has also said previously how during filming he occasionally reminded himself of his Greek mother chasing after him and his sisters when they were children.

Raised by Sephardic Jewish parents in New York, Azaria grew up admiring the timeless standards of Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Mel Blanc, and Willis Reed. And after years in the business, he’s now highly regarded by his own fans and peers – especially in the voice-acting realm. Adding his latest stint as Gargamel to the list, he says his top all-time jobs are as lisping Guatemalan houseboy Agador Spartacus in The Birdcage, his growing stockpile of Simpsons characters and, “a memorable summer behind a cash register at Au Bon Pain.” And the role he feels he bears the closest resemblance to? “Personality-wise… Moe. Look-wise… Moe,” he says affectionately of the Springfield bartender he has been voicing since 1989.

Hank now lives in Los Angeles where he admits the public get to see pretty much everything of his life besides, “my raising of chinchillas.” Soon he might have to find a sitter for those fluffy furballs because his current workload will certainly be keeping him busy. “Happy Feet Two is out in November, 2011. I play a Scandinavian puffin bird. Also, I’m in Free Agents on NBC this fall, which premieres September 14th. It’s really funny, I swear. Amazingly, I also play a Scandinavian puffin bird.”

There’s no doubt Hank Azaria has made you laugh, but what’s been his biggest career giggle? Was it something Apu said? Or maybe one of Moe’s unfortunate prank calls? Nope. “I once had a wardrobe malfunction and accidentally exposed my nipple to the entire Super Bowl audience,” he says. “Oh no wait, that was Janet Jackson.”

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WORDS BY STEFANA FRATILA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHELLE PEERALI

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The Black Ryder hail from Sydney, Australia where they first started making atmospheric music that is both dark and completely dreamy. The two core members are Aimee Nash and Scott Von Ryper. Nash recalls how they met when she was just 15. “We both used to frequent a gothic nightclub back in the day. I used to sneak into the club because I was underage, but I’d discovered bands like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, The Sisters of Mercy, Cocteau Twins and this was the only place I could be with like-minded folk. It was such
a romantic period for me musically and so exciting to come into an environment that really embraced the music, the fashion. There was definitely a sense of rebellion and also a sense of community with the dressing up, and getting a little kooky was always fun. Scott was playing in a band at the time and I had a crush on him for a couple of years. I was younger than him so nothing actually ever happened with us until I was 21. What a guy…”

The two are no longer a couple but have managed to preserve a serious friendship and working relationship, which is a lot more than most couples can say after breaking up. They were banded together in more ways than one when they were both kicked out of The Morning After Girls. “Both Aimee and I were asked to join the band,” Von Ryper recalls. “It came to a sudden but appropriately timed end for us two when we were both fired early one morning at the end of a tour. When you find yourself kicked out of the boat, you learn to swim quickly, and then realize that you want to build a very different boat altogether.”

The boat they’ve built together is a beautiful one. “We both felt creatively starved and needed to fully immerse ourselves into something we could be passionate about,” says Von Ryper. With everything falling into place, the duo named the band after an avant-garde musical fable called The Black Rider (a theatrical collaboration between William S. Burroughs, Tom Waits, and Robert Wilson). “The image of a lone black rider just seemed to fit perfectly for us.” Nash adds, “For anyone who knows us, it’s rare to find us wearing any other color.”

Their 2009 debut album, Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride was created over a long period of time, all within a studio environment. “A good reason the album took so long is because it was a learning process for us,” Nash says. “Aimee and I had never really written or collaborated on songs together before so even that was new,” adds Von Ryper.

The recording and writing process was a simultaneous one. “There was certainly a healthy or more appropriately unhealthy amount of alcohol, amongst other things, to get through the writing and recording, as well as performing,” Nash explains. “It’s an awful thing to admit, but there is something to be said for experimenting with different types of substances when you’re in that creative space. You can feel very vulnerable, and rather than stay in that place of vulnerability, sometimes it’s easier to get out of your sober mind. After enough time you realize it’s just not sustainable to keep going like that.”

Currently working on their second album, 2011 has been a great year for the band. Now living in Los Angeles they’re chilling out a bit and working on scoring a film for director Michael Spiccia (who also directed the video for Sweet Come Down). “We now have a more mindful existence and the desire to do our best,” says Nash, “whether that is through performing or in a recording environment. It’s a good motivation to look after ourselves a little more.”

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WORDS BY STEFANA FRATILA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KANDLE OSBORNE
STYLING BY MAYA FUHR
HAIR & MAKE-UP BY LIZ FURLONG

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Folk-blues band Timber Timbre began in Toronto as Taylor Kirk’s singer/songwriter recording project. After seeing his friend Jonas Bonnetta (Evening Hymns) perform solo with only a loop pedal, Taylor was inspired to perform his own songs. Three albums later, Timber Timbre is now made up of collaborators Simon Trottier and Mika Posen. Taylor tells me from the sanctuary of his room, “It feels very natural and exciting to collaborate with them and I think we’re far from exhausting the potential of this group.”

By agreeing with this I stand among many, if not all, who have heard Timber Timbre perform. Simon and Mika create beautiful and spooky soundscapes for Taylor’s warm voice and narrative lyrics. This is the kind of music a train might listen to in autumn. I guess that Taylor’s favourite season is autumn, “Yes! Autumn is my favourite. How did you know? Autumn smells best.”

Taylor now lives in Montreal. “By night, Simon and I steal bikes and break into cars.” I ask him what he’s up to and to describe his room. “Right now I am typing, and watching Crimes and Misdemeanors. Very soon I will be baking bread. My amps are stacked against the wall, guitars are behind the door. There’s a fox head on the wall and a record player in the centre of the room.”

For Timber Timbre, the recording process differs from record to record. “I used to make recordings in complete isolation playing all the instruments myself, editing, mixing, mastering, etc., all at home – not a home studio, but in my office or kitchen or closet.” However, there seems to be something that is consistently present no matter the record or the song and that is the feeling of the recording process: “It’s like losing your mind, and then finding it in the cushions of the couch.”

Taylor put out his first two records, Cedar Shakes (2006) and Medicinals (2007), himself. In 2009, his third and self-titled album was released by Out of This Spark and then re-released by Arts & Crafts later in 2010. “For the band, it didn’t change much, but for the project, it changed everything. Working with Arts & Crafts has allowed us to devote a lot of time and focus to this project. It’s been wonderful. Because of them, we’ve been all over the world with this album.”

Something I’ve always been curious to know is why Timber Timbre is called Timber Timbre. “The first collection of songs were written and recorded in a timber frame cabin I was living in years ago. Timber Timbre was the name of that collection, referring to that cabin-in-the-woods setting and sound. Later I adopted this as a moniker when I started to perform live. 
It seemed to fit and looked good on paper.

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Visited your local multiplex recently, only to leave with a major sense of déjà vu? You’re not the only one. It seems now more than ever Hollywood is hot for taking original ideas, putting them on a magic movie Xerox machine and hitting the copy button. So while you may think you’re handing over your cash for something shiny and new, in reality it’s just the same story with a brand new cover.  The same could be said for a lot of  TV commercials, music videos, and a growing number of viral flicks. While major studios have taken a hit in recent years independent producers have saddled up and confidently rode into town with a knowing grin. Churning out the same drivel until the well runs dry is something movie makers excel at – superhero movies, Jennifer Aniston-starring rom-coms, horror flicks using a handheld camera are just some recent examples – so it takes a real pioneer to go against the grain and put out something special, something different, something that makes everyone take notice and something the fat cats of Hollywood will undoubtedly try and copy for years to come.

Enter Georges Bermann, founder of production house Partizan. From its inception  Partizan has pushed the envelope of new media expectation by conceiving, developing and realising fresh-faced feature films, TV commercials and music videos with a fevered consistency.  Launched in 1991, the company’s unconventional approach has stood the test of time and rather than shy away from change its output has adapted to new media, technologies and audience expectations. With a growing portfolio of commercial clients that includes international brands Audi, Coca-Cola, MTV and Nike as well as music artists Kanye West, The Chemical Brothers and MGMT, it’s an understatement to say the Partizan flag is flying high.

As a film producer Georges has whipped up some unforgettable flicks including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind, and The Science of Sleep. In many ways, he has nurtured the success of acclaimed director Michel Gondry, and has an eye for talent that matches those of George Steinbrenner and Berry Gordy. With Georges’ skill for discovering and mentoring talented directors, Partizan has numerous awards for its dynamic work including the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and numerous MTV, Grammy, and Academy Award accolades.

So how does a person like Georges view the world? With all the work and stress of being in the entertainment industry life must be very serious and scheduled, right? Wrong. His laid-back perspective of reality is arguably key to Partizan’s continued success. Since he founded the company he’s been like a kid in a candy store – the rest  of the world is visible to him through the storefront window. But why step outside and join the hordes of uninterested, clone-like adults when there are so many delights to explore right where he is. This kid doesn’t need Hollywood’s permission to play and luckily for us he keeps finding new things to share with the world, without a cavity in sight.

WORDS BY TILLY STASIUK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KRISTINA WILSON

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Dancing her fingers across the piano, Lia Ices had our absolute attention from her first whisper of an album. Reported as having a “poetic gift for language” in New York’s Time Out magazine, this Brooklyn-based experimental-pop-stress, who shares her name with an ice cream spot, is set to release a new album. Recently signed to Jagjaguwar record label, her sophomore release Grown Unknown is already a 2011 must. Speaking to us halfway through a run of New York shows, Lia narrates her movements from small-town, paper pianist to sharing stages with Iron and Wine.

Born in Westport, on Connecticut’s Long Island Sound, Lia’s youth was scored by Elvis Costello, Gregory Hines and the Beatles’ entire back catalogue, not to mention her own musical contributions when she began taking piano lessons at the age of five. “My parents didn’t want me to get a piano; it’s a pretty serious piece of furniture. They made me a cardboard piano with black and white construction paper as keys. I would come home and practice on my paper piano. So this is where I started imagining music in my head.”

As one of pop’s best kept secrets she launched her debut album, Necima, in 2008 on Rare Book Room Records. Since its release Lia has surrounded herself with nature, becoming more aware of her relationship with landscapes and what this kindles musically. “I lived in central Vermont after Necima was released. It was really important for me to get simple and elemental with my days; to let my mind wander in new surroundings, focusing my time solely on writing music, reading, walking around in the snow and tending to the fire.”

Necima generated three cinematic music videos including one for haunting ballad “You Will”, which depicts Lia in all that calm, natural beauty nesting in a snowy Vermont. “All the videos from my first album were collaborations with people close to me. I grew up with Simone Montemurno who directed the video for ‘Half Life’, and Ruby Macdougall, who did all the choreography, has been my best friend since I was 16 years old.” There’s no doubting Lia keeps her friends close – her band consists of brother Eliot (guitar), and friends Otto Hauser (drums), and Greg Chudzik (bass) who make up the lingering sounds minus the piano and hand-claps.

After collaborating this year with Iron and Wine, at NYC’s Abrons Arts Centre, Lia joined indie-imprint Jagjaguwar, (home to Bon Iver, Black Mountain and Ladyhawke). “They trust the integrity and purpose of their artists, and I’m aware of how rare this is,” observes Lia. “I’ve always admired how they curate their labels, so to sit amongst their roster is literally a privilege,”

The new album captures a more wholesome, emotional grace than her last offering with a transcendental approach sure to shake any listener. Lia has unknowingly developed that Bjork-ish nuance of applying operatic timbre to both words and rhythm creating a permeating record. “With my new songs, it’s more confident, untamed and free. I spent a lot of time experimenting, getting ready to perform my new album.” Memo in your Moleskine: Grown Unknown is a well-timed and much-needed contribution to your collection… just don’t blame us when you’re feasting on blackberries and guzzling melted snow.

WORDS BY GRAEME BERGLUND

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Six years ago I was strolling through the Internet when I came across a place that held tones both acrid and pretty. I leaned into the monitor only to be confronted with statues of swans rusting with lichen on pedestals of chromium green, graceful palominos jumping out of their flesh into the gaped mouths of wingless monkeys, a procession of ancient women beneath masks of another’s flesh moving helically down mountainside paths of a regal purple wash.

When I sat back, I was forced to consider what inspired this complex tessellation of beauty that is so entangled with the vile. Born in 1979 in Taiwan, raised in Jersey and currently living in Los Angeles, James Jean hasn’t been able to pinpoint where the narrative originates. It likely stems from elements of accumulated cynicism and regret that threaten to overtake his natural state of idealism and sincerity.

Whatever the genesis, it is remarkable to see where it has gone. Through his dedication to his craft he has impacted an international audience. Recognized by the fashion, advertising and editorial industries James Jean is as decorated as his images, picking up the highest honors that an American illustrator can. These include seven Eisner awards, three consecutive Harvey awards, two gold medals and a silver from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators based in New York City.

While James has been recognized as a commercial illustrator his work has always possessed the sensibilities of fine art. In 2008 he reached the melting point of these two practices. The Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York provided Jean with a venue to show some of his more commercial work in a distinct setting to a new discerning audience. This transition was inevitable and ultimately successful.

The work of an illustrator can be somewhat intellectually impure, wherein you are tasked to problem solve for money, and yet the perception of fine artists is that they are more philosophical and less motivated by money. Jean has recognized the exhilarating hypocrisy where both industries are truly driven by capitalist ideals. This seems to motivate him further to keep his head down and just simply create the strongest work he can. Despite his innate talent, the work that has gone into his craft is immeasurable. The appearance of effortlessness in his hand is the result of an unseen history of dedication. In a short time he has amassed a volume of work comparable to the entire careers of other artists.

Being a fan of his work you are commonly rewarded. He has published seven packages of his work that display his fine art, his graphic novel covers and his sketchbooks. He has collaborated with fashion icon Miuccia Prada to develop her entire fall collection. This also resulted in a stunning short film which brought Jean’s world to life set to a soundtrack created by CocoRosie. This fall he will release a monstrous hardcover book with Chronicle entitled Rebus that will showcase his career within a volume of 240 pages. I, like many others, look forward to what will come from this young artist as he continues to draw us further into the darkest corners of his ethereal vision of beauty.