Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan Stutz.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I’ll try my best; however, brevity is not my strong suit (laughs). It is hard for me to really talk about who I am in general without the context of being sick or disabled. Those aspects don’t fully encompass me as a person, but do play a large part in my past and daily life. In terms of chronic conditions, I have fatal anaphylaxis to wheat/gluten (since birth), asthma, IBS, auto immune disorder/immune deficiency, scapular dyskinesis, fibromyalgia, and other allergies. I’ve survived severe quarantines, a handful of surgeries, a tumor, and some rare infections to name a few. People often react to this negatively or are a little tired of me talking about it, but it’s the only life and story I got! It has informed my art every step of the way. I’ve always been a little shy queer kid who loved staying in, so around 6 years old, drawing and guitar/music became the perfect tools for me. I could work on them while being sick, I didn’t need other people to provide ability or access to them, and progress/success was up to me! Around 3rd grade my auto immune issues started wrecking my life and that was really the first time I started using cartooning for catharsis, and that is exactly still what I do today. Music followed suit the next year, and basically everything I have mentioned all folded together. Now I’m 22, still doing and dealing with the same shit (nervous laughs). Location wise it’s a clusterfuck all around the Chicagoland area, and then the last 5 years in the city itself, so that’s been my backdrop or setting to all this.
Please tell us about your art.
I make illustrations/comics and music. What I’d love for people to take away from the things I make are the same sense of support, catharsis, empathy, and understanding that my favorite artists have given me! Sick by Gabby Schulz, Dumb by Georgia Weber, Would’ve Been Could’ve Been Should’ve Been Never Was and Never Will Be by Yewon Kwon, and Perfect Discipline & Unbending Loyalty by Tommi Parish are some books that have done that for me. The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails, Art Angels by Grimes, Care for Me by SABA, Knife Play & Fabulous Muscles by Xiu Xiu, and Stomachaches by Frank Iero are some albums that do that for me.
With comics, I’m finally now wrapping up a big project that hit a lot of personal delays for me, so this timing is pretty rad (thank you for that!). It’s a 60-page book called “Nobody: A Mediation on Suicide, Disability, and Identity_” which I feel the subject matter is pretty obvious in the title. I have this alternate cartoon version of myself called Ash, who’s been a really big part of my life since I was 16, and I have used them as a mirror for what I’ve gone through medically. So, Ash is all deformed and made out of wires/surgical materials, but also is inherently curious about their state of being. The book is primarily me walking through a dysmorphic version of Chicago with Ash to talk about my history for both our sakes, hopefully to arrive at a semblance of peace, understanding, or survival. People probably won’t like it, it’s sad and really only made as a form of therapy for myself, but I need to put it out. I’m a fan of works that are deeply vulnerable… I kind of wanted to make a comic work that felt like those Xiu Xiu and NIN albums do. Uncomfortable, intimate, vulnerably self-indulgent, and risky.
The music I make exists in a very weird place for me. There’s the really technical/nerdy side; I studied music and did lessons for 14 years, I’m in love with the physics and science of audio, and I build/mod some analog synths/pedals. Then there is like this black sludge of pain/trauma vying for release that comes out of me when I’m not being nerdy with music. So, electronics, analog synths, drum machines, and guitar have become my tools to find balance and make songs out of the two sides.
Choosing a creative or artistic path comes with many financial challenges. Any advice for those struggling to focus on their artwork due to financial concerns?
I’m not sure if I’m the best person to ask this question (laughs) mainly for two reasons! Reason one being, is that I’m still completely navigating that struggle and it is frustrating as hell. Reason two being, all my music and comics are non for profit so that the proceeds go to The Trevor Project and Lurie’s Children Hospital in Chicago. Two places that myself and people close to me wouldn’t be alive without their existence and standard of care. I think a lot needs to be immediately/radically reformed with the way finances and class work in our world right now.
I’m a very vocal socialist and deeply anti-Americanism/anti-imperialism, so I don’t really think my struggle is that worthwhile (outside of my disabilities) in context to what is happening to so many people in Chicago, countrywide, and worldwide. I mean, I feel social and financial consequences of being queer, disabled, sick, and all that pretty often, but also, I have a day job as a therapist that I love deeply and takes care of the bills for me. If that makes sense? In the realm of art, capitalism has devastated the ability and importance of non-corporate art to thrive as a profession, and the people who do manage to make it pay the bills, also have no small feat of having to then maintain that. Art is a form of resistance, can help reduce so much suffering, and help pivot change, so if you feel the struggles of classism and personal strife, make shit! Make it all! Make people hear you! And for those who are oppressed and disabled, those who aren’t have to create the damn space where people have no choice but to listen! Sorry, I got rant-y.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I’m most active on Instagram @jonathanstutz_. My music is on Spotify under my last name, Stutz_ (yes, with the underscore cause I’m annoying). I’m working on a new 6-song EP that will be added to Spotify in the coming months, but what’s on there right now I’m really proud of. My book “Nobody” that I mentioned will also be done around the same time, but both these things I’d be talking about most on Instagram. Also, I make alternate versions of my music and expanded collections for non-profits at: https://stutzmusic.bandcamp.com/
Contact Info:
- Address: 2630 W Homer St Chicago IL 60647
- Website: https://stutzmusic.bandcamp.com/
- Phone: 6304321789
- Email: jonathanstutzmusic@gmail.com
- Instagram: @jonathanstutz_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.stutz.5
Image Credit:
Jonathan Stutz.
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