"How often are there things in life that we do just because it makes us happy?"
JB: Oi Oi! Sorry, these fools are always going crazy.
Rohan Martin: Tell me about the transition to becoming legal-ish. What was that feeling like when someone said they would pay you for your graffiti?
Man, it's always going to be a very humbling and surreal moment when someone asks you to create something for them in any regard. Whether that's a canvas to hang in their home, a mural in their business, or a logo for their company or website, or whatever it may be, those things are so important to individuals. You know what I mean? They put fucking blood sweat and tears to create these things that I am now representing.
I am now, like as a professional you know, a full-time graphic designer for a branding agency. Nine to five, salary, benefits that whole nine, and then I also freelance as a graphic designer and creative director for my own clients on the side. I think that’s contrary to what most people think I do. A lot of people think I’m a studio artist or muralist, but like ya I do that sometimes, but where I get my bread is through design and creative direction.
When [in high school] I started hearing design terms for shit I already did it blew my mind. Like ‘typography’ for example, I thought holy shit ‘typography’ to me that's exactly like tagging. I've been studying letterforms my entire fucking life. There was a natural bridge forming for me from graffiti to design. Unfortunately, the process from being involved in physical space and the urban environment around you to being all digital wasn’t all that easy. Once I started to get into it, I felt like holy shit this is so sugar-coated and watered down. I went from hopping fences, cutting barbwire, running from cops, getting into fights, and scaling freeway overpasses to sitting in front of a computer moving pixels around with a mouse. Man, I thought no, no, no I want to get paint all over me; I want to get my clothes dirty and shit.
Being an artist is undoubtedly a deeply personal vocation. Why did you first start painting?
It’s like, how often are there things in life that we do just because it makes us happy? For me, it all started with curiosity. It was a childish feeling or instinct that was just so enjoyable. And even as a kid in elementary school drawing chicken scratch, like I was obviously trash, it still spurred so much curiosity in me.
I remember as a kid, looking up at these painted overpasses and highway signs, I really thought that these graffiti artists were spider-man or something.
So, while you’re hitting all these realizations and avenues are lighting up for you, what sort of advice would you give a young artist trying to build a portfolio the unconventional way?
Man, I'd say you got to take a step back from even building a portfolio, from even beginning to develop your fine skills, before any of that shit man, you gotta be a good person. And I will take that to my grave. You might be the best fucking artist, you might have the dopest work, all the bells and whistles, but if you're a piece of shit, no one is gonna want to work with you. The doors aren't gonna open, you know what I'm saying? And that's something that I myself have to work on too. I'm no angel. All of that positive energy is going to eventually contribute to a positive career.
Passion is another big one, and no one's gonna just fucking hand you passion. Developing a passion is something that takes a lot of time, and it's not easy to find, it takes a lot of failure. It takes countless hours of work, and you got to step out of your comfort zone to be able to find that passion. But once you do, man, it's a dangerous thing. If you are so fucking passionate about something that there's literally no other option, then you are a force to be reckoned with because nothing's gonna get in your way of attaining that goal. So, I guess there's being a good person and fighting to be inspired, to find a passion you know, again, with those two things, you become one dangerous motherfucker. With those two things, I think a lot of stuff will fall into play. The rest can be taught in school or something.
Where has your art physically taken you? It seems like a great way to see the world and leave your mark.
The past couple of years have been one of the most alive times I've ever felt. I really started to understand the importance of travel, at least for me personally. It may be a bit of a unique instance because I know a lot of my peers at the agency and whatnot have responsibilities that keep them in one place, but I basically recognized my opportunity and said; alright, let's get it! For the past two years now I've been more or less living a nomadic life. Los Angeles, New York, various parts of Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, various parts of Europe, from Copenhagen to Switzerland, Montenegro. What am I missing? Ireland. And now I'm in Central America. Today I'm in Colombia, but soon I’m off the Buenos Aires [which somehow perfectly coincided with Argentina winning the World Cup], and then Peru and Brazil. It's a pretty beautiful thing to be able to get out of my comfort zone, meet people, shake new hands, see shit, and be inspired. It's crucial to my process.
A trademark JB.WAS.HERE piece is the rose. Where does it come from?
I find a lot of inspiration in tattoo culture. The rose is such an iconic tattoo design. Almost every tattoo artist that I know has their own rose. I'm doing the rose today, I might do it tomorrow, but who knows what I'll be painting a bunch of in a week, or a month, or a year. I mean, I never want to be reduced to one image. It's kind of been a natural progression. The fact of the matter is I was just really bad at drawing them. But I think looking at them now, especially in the places that I've ended up painting them, there's a little bit of subliminal messaging or something unique to them. A message that was sort of unintentional. But for example, during a lot of my travels, I love to find these spots that are kind of uncharted, like abandoned buildings, abandoned military bases, or just old run-down ruins. To paint a flower, to paint a rose, something that is, what's the right word? Sort of embodies life. Like a plant or flower has the ability to grow basically anywhere at any time. I don't know, there's something very special about that. To see something that represents life in a very ruined sort of dilapidated or destroyed setting, it's the contrast that's kind of special, I think. And again, it was unintentional, but at the very least, I hope that if someone does find these things they will stop and think and be like; what the fuck is this?
It seems like defacing is part of your style, whether it's graffiti or your art on maps and books. Do you consciously think about this, or does it just come naturally to you?
I think graffiti in itself is defacing and destruction. When you boil it down it's vandalism, its destruction of property. It’s something engrained in me. There’s some attitude behind it. You don’t want to see my art in this spot? I’m gonna keep doing it and doing it, and you can’t stop me. I just like to use things other than a canvas. It's beautiful and different. People hit me up like “you just fucked that painting up” and I just respond with “ya, I did”. I get these books along my travel in these little libraries with 100-year-old books stacked to the ceiling. I got my first bunch in Portugal. They were each like 1 euro. The store has a unique smell to it. You only know it if you know it; it smells like old books. You pick these things up man, and they’re falling apart. They have handwriting in them from owners decades back in different languages. You're holding a little piece of history. To find these things and take them off the shelf, a hundred years later, feels like almost giving them a new purpose.
You can’t just go pick up a 200-year-old canvas for 1 euro. The effect that a book might have had on someone a hundred years ago in some small town in Portugal is unimaginably deep, the book could have altered their life course.
Exactly man, a dirty nasty graffiti kid picks up an old book 100 years after it was published and gives it a new life. I wonder what will happen in a hundred years when I’m long gone and someone finds this book and sees my work laying there like ‘Woah what the fuck this ain't no regular book’. This guy was on some shit.
I see it now. A kid in 2300 walks into an old bookstore and starts flipping through pages, just to find an original priceless JB rose.
What does 2023 look like for JB.WAS.HERE?
I’ll keep this one short. Rather than talk about it, I'd rather just be about it. I'd rather just show you. Talk is cheap.