Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Ramirez.
Jay, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve been an artist my entire life but really started working on a collection of illustrated short stories a few years ago. While writing and drawing, I kept coming up with more characters and back stories than would fit into a book so, I branched out into doing a few comic strips and other reoccurring character blog entries. I partnered with Palmer Printing (The last printer on Printers Row in Chicago) this past holiday season doing a scratch and sniff wrapping paper and accompanied holiday cards with some of my characters. That really kicked off a flood of commissioned art projects. Currently, I’m working on a collection of acrylic paintings, drawings and sculptures for my first gallery show in the spring. By that time, I hope to have the book done as well. I”m currently in it’s 4th revision.
My hope is that people find a little joy in the odd monsters and creatures I create visually and then find some humor in their strange characteristics and origin stories or off-kilter anthropomorphism and interactions.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I can’t think of anything creative I’ve been a part of that has been smooth. From the rock bands I’m in to the written and visual art I create. The problem really lies in our societies ideas of the intrinsic value of art. Music is essentially free and has been for a few decades. That means, there is a whole generation of people that never knew what it was like to pay for music or even that at one time that was the only option besides sitting next to your stereo for hours with your finger on the record/play buttons waiting for your song to come on. Obviously some art holds unbelievable monetary value, but the ledge you careen over after a Dali or a Picasso is quite a lenghty fall to being able to pay rent and order out a few times a week. I actually know a few artists that make a living off their art, both in music and visual art but it’s a very few individuals. The value of individual content seems to have lowered drastically with the ability of the population to produce so much of it.
The only solace in our current situation is to keep your head down and keep creating. I did a comic strip of my cat and I until he died of old age just this past year. I was heartbroken of course but I still had a lot of jokes and observations I needed to get out. So, I started 2 new strips. One about aliens and one about jellyfish. The protagonist changed but my voice didn’t. I just keep writing and drawing and hoping one day a mass audience might find my work crossing their path. Then, they can choose to stop to enjoy themselves for a moment or two.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Jay Draws Things story. Tell us more about the business.
Jay Draws Things is an emporium of my weird ideas and characters. I do a fair amount of commissioned illustrations. I like to interact with the client and try and extrapolate character traits and nuance so the finished product will hold palpable value to it’s end owner.
I specialize in animals and creatures so a great deal of my work incorporates interactions between people and creatures. I’m lucky so many American’s hold their pets and animals in general with such high regard. It’s truly amazing how much a small illustration of a person and their beloved pet can touch someone on an emotional level. It could seem frivolous to an artist – I literally have 1000’s of drawings of my cat and I can scribble one out on the back of a receipt before the wait-staff returns my credit card-but a whimsical interpretation of an individual and their loved ones done right could become a tiny centerpiece and/or conversation starter in someones home. We’re all story tellers, I just add visual-aids to help keep things flowing.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Well, we could all use a little more. More than luck, I’d say its all network. I have so many talented friends in all aspects of art/entertainment. From bands, DJs, promoters, club owners, artist relations, performance and visual art. The list of my friends doing amazing things makes me very proud. Simple introductions can lead to amazing opportunities and collaborations. It doesn’t hurt to be a good conversationalist either. I can talk about outer space or snakes or tanks or fireworks or heavy metal or drums for hours and hours. Somewhere in there, you find bonds with people and some of those are tangible and lasting.
As for bad luck, I’d just chalk that up to being human living in a city with millions of other humans. We all want to live a perfectly filtered Instagram-life, but every one of us has to avoid dog poop on the sidewalk outside our house at least 60% of the time we walk out the door.
Contact Info:
- Website: jaydrawsthings.com
- Phone: 6164811703
- Email: jayramirez@msn.com
- Instagram: JayDrawsThings
- Facebook: JayDrawsThings
- Twitter: JayDrawsThings
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