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–Meet the Artist:Jason Noto–

 

Q: Have you always been so damn good at drawing?

A: I don’t really know how to answer that since I don’t think I’m all that good now…

But I mean, was I always as good as I am currently? I think I may have been better at some point. Lol

I’ve always had the urge though. Since childhood, as far back as I can remember, when met with boredom, a blank sheet of paper was my best friend. It started as drawing to entertain myself, I think. Doodling cartoons and such. And how I progressed in my abilities was by not paying attention most of the time in school and doodling instead. Don’t really know if that was a good or a bad choice, but I’m sure I’d do it again. It wasn’t till after graduating high school and doing some, erm, soul searching? If you can call it that. I was defintely searching for something, although I kinda went of the rails and then went in tons of crazy circles and fell into alternate realties…And somewhere in that chaos, I found a sort of “style”, and most definitely a voice, although a really dark and depressing voice. But there were moments, years ago, when I would be so inspired, my hand would seem to move on it’s own. And it felt important. I felt driven, and making a mistake wasn’t even a possibility, it was just a matter of forcing myself to finish (which is a big problem of mine, among legions of other problems).

But it’s a fleeting thing. And I go through long, long stretches of time where I don’t feel like an artist at all. And if I try to draw, I just sit there and feel like I don’t know how to draw anything. Which is a good lead in to the next question I think…

Q: What inspires you to create?

A: My hatred for the world. Lol

And also, my love of beauty…But I find beauty in strangeness.

That’s where the drive comes from anyway, these days. But inspirations for the way I draw come from everywhere. Movies, comics, anime, books, music, or just regular things I see.

Q: Name an artist you are wow’d by?

A: Just one? Jeez, I dunno. I’m wow’d by lots and lots and lots of people. Musicians and painters and animators and authors and street artists and whatever. I don’t think I can pick one.

Q: One thing I love about your art is that each picture I’ve seen tells such a story, and I want to keep reading! Do you develop characters that you reuse? (When does the book come out…?)

A: That’s news to me. I always sort of see my pictures as vague bits of a story, that you don’t know the beginning or ending to.

In high school I dreamed of drawing comics, and I’ve attempted a few rough ones, but nothing serious, and I never finished any of them. I used to write short stories, but I never really combined them with my art for some reason…Probably due to lack of focus, discipline, commitment, these things.

But I’ll let you know if the book ever does come out. It would probably indeed be “the” book. Lol I’m not sure I could manage more than one…And even to do one I’d need to find a story that was truly worth telling. I’ve lost interest in just telling silly stories for entertainment. I still enjoy comedy, but, if I was going to tell a story I have a feeling it’d be deadly, awfully, terribly serious and miserable at it’s core, even if it was packaged prettily (is that a word?)

Q: What’s your favorite thing about drawing?

A: It’s my only means of communicating the chaos in my brain-space, because words often seem inadequate.

Q: Do you listen to music while you create? If so what are you listening to now?

A: Absolutely. I’m listening to Radiohead, The Bends, at the moment as I write this thing, for nostalgia purposes mostly.

I freakin’ love music though. All kinds. My favorite band in the world is this Japanese band called the Pillows, for some reason their sound just tickles my happy strings like no other band. But I really love all kinds. I like the Beatles and the Stones, Bowie, and like that, but also love punk, I even like pop sometimes. I like classical. I like jazz. I like hip hop. All kinds.

Amanda Palmer. Really like her. (Dunno if I was supposed to list, but I did.)

Q: Any recommended reading?

A: I love Philip K. Dick. A Scanner Darkly is probably my favorite, but he has so many amazing others. I like Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Douglas Adams…

Oh, and Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, I would recommend to everyone. I feel it’s a very important and pretty enlightening book.

Q: Are you an action, comedy or romance man, and what film would you then recommend? Of course you could also maybe be a documentary guy?

A: I love all kinds of films! Seems like a cop-out answer again, but yeah. I love action. I love comedy. Romance is good if done right. I love classics. I’m also huge on foreign films, and Japanese animation.

To recommend a good film, uhh, Last Life in the Universe. Because it’s not a very well known film, but it’s one of my favorites. About a Japanese man and a Thai girl who come to live together and can only communicate through the broken English they know. It’d be my example of “romance done right.”

Also, Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa is probably one of the most beautiful films I can think of.

Q: We know being an artist is a lot of work, so what drives you to keep going?

A: I don’t know. Whatever drives me to keep on living. I don’t really see art as work, it’s always been an enjoyable sort of escape for me. But that’s also probably why I’m not very productive most of the time. I generally just work in spurts, but when I get in the zone, I really get there. Most of my stuff I finish in one sitting, because if I don’t, I tend to never go back to it.

Q: How do you think the Internet has changed art?

A: It added lots of cats. Lol

Want to be our next featured artist? Send us a message with some info (links, who you are, what you do) to theteam [at] allwegotrecords [dot] com