Today we’d like to introduce you to Joey Tea.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I grew up in a very small town of Spring Grove, about an hour north of Chicago. With my father having grown up in Lakeview, I still had a lot of family in the City and would often visit. In middle school, I began skateboarding and by high school, I was taking the train to Chicago every weekend to go skate and explore. I fell in love with street art, graffiti, hip-hop, and architecture and knew I wanted to live in Chicago. I went to Mchenry County College and got an associates degree in graphic design. I moved to Chicago in 2014 to pursue music and become emerged in city life. I had no intention in making any visual art but couldn’t help but take photos of Chicago’s beautiful architecture when I’d go out exploring. Over time, I amassed quite the collection of photos of various Chicago landmarks, building, and neighborhoods. I began using the Photoshop skills I developed in college to edit my photos into surreal scenes and psychedelic patterns.
Please tell us about your art.
In college, I had a graphic design professor that would always harp on us for using other people’s photos in our projects and said that was a good way to get sued. What he said must have stuck with me because fast forward some years and here I am only manipulating photos that I personally took. Coupled with my fascination for architecture, I have a passion for psychedelic patterns and geometry. I began making patterns out of my own photos in Photoshop. As a digital artist, I felt a sense inadequacy, like because my art was digital it could never live in the real world space of arts such as paintings. Even as a print, my art would be lacking the one of a kind uniqueness of a hand-drawn piece of art. My solution to this problem was to tear up my physical prints and reassemble them as collages, often painting on top of them. I’m happy to say I’ve found a way to bring my digital artwork into the physical realm and make each piece one of kind. Working with mostly photographs of Chicago, I’m attempting to reinterpret the city and present its iconic architecture, and culturally diverse neighborhoods in a fresh perspective. My goal with each piece of art I make is to create something with so much detail and that the viewer could never get tired of looking at it. I like to think my artwork challenges viewers to see things in a new perspective and most of all just make them think. My collaged work often ends up looking like a painting when it’s all done and people often wonder how it could possibly be made. I love explaining my outside the box process and hope it encourages them to think outside the box too. A friend referred to my art as meditation pieces, in which you could look at forever and continually notice new things. That’s kind of my philosophy on life; if you are mindful enough you can walk the same street every day and continually notice new details.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
I think the biggest challenge facing artists today is the need to be validated and comparing your self to others. I think social media is programming all humans to compare themselves and for artists, this can detrimental. Artists need to stay in their own lane and grind, so I think getting caught up in the opinions of others can be very damaging and a waste of time.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People can check out my artwork on my website, joeytea.com where they will also find upcoming exhibitions and shows. I also show and sell my artwork on the streets of Chicago randomly so if they follow me on social media they can find out where and when I will be popping up with my art. On my website, there is also a store where I sell prints, one of a kind collages, and more.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.joeytea.com
- Email: info@joeytea.com
- Instagram: joeytea
- Facebook: facebook.com/joeyteaart
- Other: www.etsy.com/shop/JoeyTeaArt
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