Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony J.
Hi Tony, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was born in New Haven, Connecticut and spent most of my life there. It was great because I was only a few hours away from New York City. I drew all my life. I was mostly inspired by underground comic books and horror comic books. I graduated from Paier College of Art (small college in CT. Our graduated class was like 30-35) with a BFA in Illustration. I had a pretty good career as an artist since there summer of 2000. Made a lot of comical paintings that did very well. Exhibited and sold all over the world. And also did a lot of side projects which were fun too.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Well, I didn’t get into every gallery I wanted to. I have enough rejection slips to cover my entire studio twice with. But in all honesty, not that bad. I also sell magnets, prints and comic books on my art which does very well. Since I moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, I pretty much had to start fresh. But I had a bunch of art shows here and had a show I produced back in Connecticut called Forgot To Laugh: Sideshow And Animation Festival at The Parkway Theater.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am mostly known for my satirical artwork like, Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Mona Lisa. I painted all the features of the original painting but I replaced the head with Yoda’s head and on the bottom of a painting is written Yoda Lisa in a painterly style of a single-panel comic. I’ve mocked many artists.
I am also the co-founder and producer of Forgot To Laugh: Sideshow And Animation Festival. The show is a healthy mix of live performances such as contortionists, yo-yo performers, burlesque and more. From local acts to world renowned performers like The Great Throwdini, Big Nazo and Jonathan Burns. Then in between each act we will have 3 to 4 animated shorts fom such artists as Bill Plympton, Nina Paley, Steve Casino, Happy Tree Friends and many others.
I’ve won a couple of awards and a few grants for my work.
From time to time, I make short films under the name Dr. Wildé. You can see them on YouTube and Vimeo.
My next exhibitions are:
Burl Art Gallery located at 308 East Prince St in Saint Paul from January 25th to March 22nd. Reception Sat Feb. 22nd from 5-8pm.
and
Art Garden Flin at The Flux located at 699 NE Lowry Ave in Minneapolis on Sat April 5th from 11am to 7pm.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Here’s a good one… for FTL (Forgot To Laugh), I thought it would be funny if one of my local animators would come onstage and act like we were gonna raffle them off as a date game. My animators would come out with sexy music (they are not sexy) and pull a ticket out of the hat for one of our audience to go on a date with them.
I told this to my brother-in-law (whoes a lawyer) and said I must buy insurance because if something bad happen to the winner, I would be held responsible. So I had to buy like $200-$300 of insurance.
The night of the show, a full house, and the animators felt a little nervous because they feared no one would come down and accept a date with them. So they had a plant to be called. I said, “let’s try 3 times first and see if anyone acepts then we’ll use the plant.” I paid a lot of money for this. So. the first ticket I called, a lady in the back yelled, “OMG I won!!!”. Turns out she was the plant! Imagine that, out of over 300 people the first one I called was the plant. I spent that money for nothing.
Pricing:
- Original art: vary
- Magnets: $5 each
- Matted Prints: $25 each
- Comic Books: $3 each
Contact Info:
- Website: https://oktony.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/oktonyj
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/oktonyj
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@TonyJOKTony
