Takeover Tuesday with Jardley Jean-Louis
An interview with Jardley Jean-Louis an NYC born multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Queens.
Interviewer: Matea Losenegger
Read time: 5min
Matea:
Hey Jardley! Thanks for lending us your time. Can you please introduce yourself?
Jardley:
Hey! I’m Jardley Jean-Louis, I’m an NYC born multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Queens. I work in illustration, animation and film and center my work on depicting stillness, education, and under-represented identities and subjects.
Matea:
What inspired you to become an artist and how did you get into the motion design space?
Jardley:
It’s funny, I’ve been an artist since I was a kid and was going to say nothing inspired me because this is how it’s been forever. But I have a memory of being really young and there being a boy who was a really great artist in the class, me aspiring to be that good and taking him on as my mentor. So, that kid and my perseverance to get really good.
In terms of motion design, I think in the back of my head while I was pursuing just art, I wanted to get into the animation space. As a kid that meant the goal of having my own show on Nickelodeon and a film for Disney when I grew up, and later and more concretely, learning more about motion design as an Illustrator’s Assistant for a one-person animation studio while in college. That was my first art job. While my role there was to produce character/background design, the CD also invited me into the depths of script-writing, storyboarding, and animating background characters. Getting that well-rounded experience and seeing the final animation which felt like magic to me, was enough to start me on my own journey of honing my animation skills and looking for my own clients.
“Mementos.”
Matea:
How would you describe your artistic style and what are some key themes and messages that you explore in your work?
Jardley:
My work is very character driven and intent on building a mood especially with lights and shadows. I also without intending to, use a lot of deep rich colors. I work digitally these days, but my work has been described as painterly - which is great to hear because my foundation is in traditional painting and drawing. So, that’s unintentionally translated.
The key themes and messages I explore in my work are quiet life moments that speak to the reality of life, education, and under-represented identities and subjects.
Matea:
Can you walk us through your creative process? How do you come up with new ideas and what techniques do you use to bring them to life?
Jardley:
On both client and personal work - the creative process is dictated by the brief or idea and what mood and feeling the work is trying to convey. On client projects I’m zero-ing in on the themes and message the client has shared with me and the key words in the script that define each scene. On personal projects, I have an idea and I’m looking to draw it out through thinking of what type of composition and lighting accentuates it.
An exercise I do is dump every idea (including a ridiculous idea) onto my notebook. I believe that writing every single idea, not criticizing it, and therefore dismissing it, frees your mind to be more creative and find its way to a strong concept. If you’re constantly cutting an idea off at its legs, you won’t feel safe enough to explore and trust you’ll find an idea.
I then work through concepts by sketching them out and writing questions I have for myself. I find the notes especially stimulating.
I also review my long list of Flickr reference images and spend a lot of time on Behance looking for inspo.
“Friends”
Matea:
How different is your approach to client work vs your personal projects?
Jardley:
Well with client work it involves more pre-production than I do in my personal projects. That involves deciphering the script or brief and providing tangible materials such as moodboards, sketches, style frames or mockups, and storyboard animatics. In my own work I do less of that - the tangible materials. I’m typically holding an idea and composition in my head. I’ll look at a ton of reference images and then go straight into creating it in photoshop or after effects when the pieces feel right. For both, I also am finding the color scheme while I’m working - most times I have an idea of colors, but it’s not settled until I’m working on it.
However, since my recent solo exhibition, I’ve started to see the reason for sketches in my own personal projects. It helps to remind you of what the composition is meaning to be and by having it out on the paper, you’re able to see if it’s working or not rather than just going straight to final. Finding out the imagined concept didn’t work bit me in the ass one or twice on this solo.
Matea:
Huge congratulations on your recent solo exhibition "Joy - This Place I Land." What was that experience like and are you interested in working on more gallery work?
Jardley:
Thank you! The experience was incredible, I’m glad. I was selected as a ARTWorks Fellow for Jamaica Center for the Arts and Learning’s 10 month residency and the solo exhibition came from that.
So it was a 10 month process of figuring out what scenes best represented my theme: what does joy and thriving look like in everyday life. Especially being Black.
Originally I had 6 pieces + an animation I planned, but upon revisiting the gallery space and seeing how much space I had, I added 2 more illustrations. Getting to show what joy is for me, which is really just love in life moments and witnessing how much it resonated with folks meant a lot to me.
I’m not really interested in becoming a gallery artist. I’ll have my work in shows here and there as long as it makes sense to me. Same for residencies. I’m not actively pursuing either. I view it as avenues that are available to me as a creative. Never just confined to one avenue.
“Bart Simpson”
Matea:
I know it's difficult to choose, but do you have a favorite piece in the show and what makes it stand out in your mind?
Jardley:
I have two pieces that stand out for me. “Heritage” for its family ties, warmth and sense of just belonging and “To Be With Friends.” for all the love, lightness, and thriving I continually want for my life.
Matea:
Where do you get inspiration? Are there any particular artists or movements that have impacted your work?
Jardley:
I get inspired everywhere. Walking around and looking at things, overhearing conversations, being with people, looking at the work of fellow creatives, taking in my apartment, processing my life, tv shows/films.
Artists that heavily impact my work are Rebecca Mock and Katharine Lam. Particularly for creating a mood and for their use of lighting. Also Pat Perry, for the still and simple moments of life.
Matea:
How do you stay motivated to create your own work in addition to client projects? Do you have any tips for burnout?
Jardley:
I won’t say that I consistently create my own work and do so alongside client projects successfully. I don’t have a routine. Sometimes it happens that it’s a particularly slow time so I have room for my own work, or there’s an idea I want to get out, or mentally I’m in a space to put the work in and things just flow then. I try to honor where I’m at. I guess I stay motivated because producing client work isn’t my end goal for my career. I want the ratio to skew wherein majority of the time, the work I’m producing is mine. It’s what I’m known for and it’s how I make a living. I still plan on working with clients, but I think my voice and creative project being the end goal is more fulfilling.
For burnout, my tip is to honor it as best you can. When I was a permalancer, that meant speaking up that I was taking some mental health days for myself. When I’ve been working non-stop on client work that means taking as much time as I can in between client work. If I’m on deadline, but am already burnt out and a concept isn’t coming or my brain is frying, I try to take chunks of time during the day to just chill out. Honor it as best you can.
“Heritage”
Matea:
Any upcoming projects you're excited about?
Jardley:
I recently wrapped up an animation where I was the illustrator on it which I’m excited to see in its final. It’s about the stained foundation of America.
I have a personal short film animation that I’m currently researching and world-building on on the early years of the AIDS epidemic and Haitians.