Jesse rolls into us here as the second featured character in our new little series, 7 Deadly Questions. He's a talented illustrator/designer that comes from the same little world of skateboarding and snowboarding that treated me so kindly for most of my life. I'm excited to see him and his work getting some much deserved attention lately.
Recent projects for Jesse involve some pretty great brands like Lifetime Collective, Dinosaurs Will Die, Sitka, El Kartel, Stepchild and a whole bunch more.
Below Jesse discusses his love of bacon, shameful lack of greed and more ways he may or may not be a no good sinner. Oh, and also a bunch of awesome artwork.
7 Deadly Questions
Gluttony — After a night of gluttonous drinking, what's your go-to delivery food for the ensuing gluttonous couch hangover? Chinese? Greek? Burger time? We have these two food delivery services in town we use. One for respectable establishments, where we've gotten to know the guy. The other, for disgusting hangover days that we wouldn't want the other service to see. A delivery double life, if you will, filled with McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, dozens of tacos at a time. It's like having two lives… the travelling salesman with two families.
JW: This is something that I have spent years trying to figure out and perfect.
In the heat of the moment, I'll usually scarf down some late night pizza. Two or three slices all covered with that hideous dressing and soaking with hot sauce. I think it will do the trick and sober me up, but more often than not it just makes me feel like shit and takes my terrible hangover morning breath to all new heights.
Honestly, if I know I am going to have a big night of celebration, I try to make sure that I have a little setup all ready to roll for the morning, usually consisting of blue Gatorade, coconut water, eggs, bacon and english muffins.That's the secret. Get something in your stomach early in the morning while you're still a bit drunk and you'll feel golden.
Lust — Okay, so every person you could ever possibly find attractive (of age!) in the world loves your artwork. Your phone is lighting up for nude portrait requests. Whose birthday suit would you party with, using your pencil? Literally pencil. Not a euphemism. I mean, either way...
JW: [Ha!] How can you narrow this down to one person!? I'll give you my current top two. Kate Bosworth, serious babe status, plus she was in Blue Crush. Then there's Amber Heard, have you seen the Rum Diaries? Definitely a classic looking lady, and she plays a scandalous little fox in that film. But seriously, I'm pretty terrible at life drawing so I doubt any of these fine looking ladies would be too pleased to be drawn 40 pounds overweight with lopsided hips and a bobble head.
Greed — Do you ever find yourself feeling greedy over anything? I have this favourite bar I go to that orders a limited supply of a certain type of beer. When I would see other people drinking it, I'd say to the owner, "You'd better check stock. That guy's hoarding on my goods!" The owner of said bar, being an incredible humanitarian, took that beer off the menu so no one would see it. To order it, you'd have to physically go into their beer fridge to see it was even in stock or know what it was. That's greed. I actually had a beer removed from a menu.
JW: [Haha] That's awesome. You know what, I don't notice myself being too greedy very often. I like to take pleasure in sharing what I have with my friends and my girlfriend... and our dog.
Sloth — Do you ever feel low on motivation? For a creative personality, that seems like a no-brainer. There must be so many highs and lows, but what causes the sloth in you to come out the most?
JW: Oh, yes. This is an interesting one. I can honestly push on until the job is done. I work best under tight deadlines and I often find that my strongest concepts come at the 11th hour.
The funny thing is, once I am finished a large project I just tend to collapse for a few days... maybe a week. I just won't really do much of anything. Sometimes there will be three to four months where I am basically working everyday, all day and I just turn into a zombie. When the work is done, I guess my body needs to shut down and re-boot itself. Plus, when it's hot out, like it's been for the past seven weeks, I'm pretty useless. I just can't stand the heat, it makes me super grumpy.
These Party Animals better have some blue Gatorade and bacon ready. Lifetime Collective artwork for their upcoming Uniform Standard Fall/Winter 2013 line.
Wrath — I don't think we're picking very good candidates in this series to answer this one. No one I know is a true wrath type of person. But, let's just say you could take something, wrap it up in a burlap sack and chuck it into the river. What would it be? Right now, for me, it'd probably be that whole group of people that did the wedding this summer that ran up about $9 million or close to it. The Napster/Facebook guy. Here guys, jump in this burlap sack, I'll carry you to the wedding! Sploosh. That'd be that.
JW: Probably my credit card. My credit card can fuck off. I try my darnedest [Edward's note: Darnedest? In the wrath answer?] not to use it unless it's actually needed, but sometimes things just sneak on to the bill. Credit cards are a horrible invention. They make poor people even poorer and fool people into living beyond their means.
Envy — You're Clive Owen in the Inside Man. Inside Job? The one co-starring with 'Zel, where he robs the bank. If you were him, and the bank was actually a Talent Bank and was stocked full of some kind of skill set that you wish you had, what would you be stealing? I mean, I guess at this point in the Envy question you're a handsome British actor named Clive Owen, so you could even just say, "Clive Owen. I'd just be Clive Owen."
JW: Yeah, that's a tough one. Clive Owen is the man. That film is awesome as well. If I could choose one thing to be better at it would be public speaking. My mind tends to cave in on itself and I just turn into a sputtering, muttering sweaty fool when addressing any more than four or five people at one time. I bet Clive Owen doesn't have that problem...
Clive Owen couldn't do this. A piece of Jesse's artwork out in the wild. Dinosaurs Will Die method at Camp of Champions.
Pride — What was the last thing you did that you were super stoked on. Something you looked at and said, "Yeah, this is it. If I keep doing this, I've got it made!"
JW: I'm still looking for that. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of what I have done thus far in my short career as a freelance creative. Every project I finish is better than the last, but for the most part every project I work on is fairly different from the previous..whether it is coming up with concepts for a new line of snowboards or rebranding an existing company. My job never repeats itself. I'll keep on working at this trade...maybe the next time you interview me I'll have a better answer for you.
There you have it, friends. I hope you enjoyed finding out why JRW may or may not be a moderately no good sinner, or generally all around good guy.
Now enjoy a few selects of Jesse's work below, then follow him on Instagram and take a peek at his site for even more artistic goodness.
