I am JBOY. A visual artist. Sharing my ideas helps calm my hyperactive mind.

I’ve always believed the idea is the artwork, not the polish, not the finish. So if you’re here to judge how clean my lines are, I’m already last. My Inspiration comes from everywhere and usually turns up uninvited. As a kid, I spent a lot of time “borrowing” Gary Larson books from the library (I returned them, eventually), and later I studied (or more accurately, stared at the pictures of) Guy Billout while in art school. At some point I stumbled into the urban art scene by accident. I’ve been trying to escape ever since, but it keeps sucking me back in like a particularly determined Henry the Hoover. Over time a mess of influences has shaped how I work. I just follow what feels right. Technically I’m an artist, but I only tend to hyperfocus when my mind clicks into the zone. I work when I feel like it, and weirdly, that’s when I’m most efficient.

I like to work in charcoal, pencil, and paint. I tend to flit between whatever I can be bothered doing at the time. Most of the work ends up black and white, I just think it looks fairly slick, but I usually pull out a single colour as a focal point. It’s simple, but I find it amplifies the message and gives the eye somewhere to land. Not everything works visually, and most of it never makes it past the bin. Only the ideas that truly land get released.

My work tends to be a commentary, sometimes on things I care about, sometimes just on things I find absurd. I like to deliver those thoughts with a light, dry twist. My background in art is reasonably solid. I’m artistically trained, whether I paid attention or not is another matter. Though my proudest creative milestone is still being taught technical drawing by Timmy Mallett’s uncle. If you don’t know who Timmy Mallett is, he was an 80s kids’ TV presenter who wore Bermuda shorts and mental glasses. Luckily, he is one of the good ones. We stay in touch, and he is an artist himself nowadays.

As for the anonymity, no mystery. I just prefer it.

I care a lot about what I make, and I always keep an eye out for people who are kind.

I am happy to answer any questions.