INTERVIEW WITH BIG-EYE ARTIST JASMINE BECKET - GRIFFITH

Interview with Big-Eye artist Jasmine Becket - Griffith. 
Interview conducted by Sandra Scholes

It's only fitting that Allura, one of my favourite paintings of Jasmine Becket - Griffith's should right up there. Her work has become the stuff of legends are fairies often are, and it it great that the artist has given a lot of her time to this interview, so let's take no more time before getting to the interview itself and learning more about the woman and her famous art.

Sandra: What made you want to get into big eye artwork. Was it a conscious decision on your part to create something original and instantly recognisable?

Jasmine:  My favourite thing to paint is eyes.  Often as a little girl I'd cut out small pieces of paper, drawing eyes on them, studying peoples' eyes, cutting eyes out of photographs that I liked, etc.  I love the emotion that can be conveyed through just the eyes, and as an artist I enjoy playing with the infinite variety of colour & reflection.   The eyes are the first thing a viewer looks at when they see a painting with any human or animal form.  Because of these reasons, I like to make them big!   When I was a child I loved the 1950s-1960s "big eye" prints of artists like Margaret Keane and Gig, they were sold in the backs of my mom's old comic books.  I also love dolls, Disney cartoons, etc. all with large eyes - and it's been a big part of how I have developed my own aesthetic.  I myself have large eyes, and I think a lot of my artwork can be seen as stylised self-portraits.

Sandra: As far as my favourite pieces of your work, I am torn between two that often stick in my mind, Allura and Dark Dragon. For me the main draw of Allura is the vibrancy of the green in the vines, her eyes and the forehead jewellery versus the dark background that makes the girl stand out, whereas in Dark Dragon, the opposite is true. You have a dark figure and dragon with a light background. Was this done on purpose?

Jasmine:   Nope, I think I have just done so many paintings over the years (since I started my strangeling.com website in 1997 I have sold over 4,000 - 5,000 original paintings), that there is probably every sort of colour combination out there if you look hard enough, hehe.  Allura was from 2004, Dark Dragon in 2006, so they weren't really intended to be companion pieces.  I have a lot of congruent and complementary imagery that is consistent in my artwork throughout the years though, so unintentionally there are some well suited pairs out there.

Sandra: What kind of Classical artwork and artists were you introduced to when you were growing up and what influence did they have on your work later?

Jasmine:  I have had a very strong background in art history, both through personal study (travelling to museums around the world, reading loads of books) and a minor degree in college.  I continue to attend lectures and educate myself extensively on art history, it is a great passion of mine, second only to painting.  Growing up in particular my biggest influences have been Hieronymus Bosch, the Pre-Raphaelites (Waterhouse, Millais, Rossetti, etc.), Ingres, Van Eyck, Salvador Dali, and the French baroque/rococo artists (Fragonard, Boucher, etc.).  All of these artists have contributed to my own work in many ways - both in technique (I use a lot of old masters techniques with under painting, glazing, etc.) and in style and theme.  Many of my paintings intentionally reference pieces from art history, in particular my "Alice in Other Lands" series that puts my Alice in Wonderland characters into specific historical paintings.

Sandra: Are you familiar with Japanese manga art and if so, have you ever drawn your own characters?

Jasmine:  I have visited Japan many times and enjoy watching the occasional anime, but it's nothing I've explored much with my own art.  I think a lot of people look at my paintings and say "Hey look- manga!" because that is the only other experience they've had with large eyed characters.

Sandra: Like me you have grown up with a love of fantasy books such as the Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman and the artwork on their covers. Tell me, what drew you to them?

Sandra: The Dragonlance novels are most famous for their cover art, which artists did you like best and why?

Jasmine:   The TSR/Wizards of the Coast company at that time had a stellar lineup of artists - Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Keith Parkinson, Jeff Easley, etc.  and these exciting book covers were treated as fine art - high fantasy realism, oil paintings, acrylics - unlike a lot of the kids books I'd been used to (and sadly unlike a lot of junky computer/digital/photomanip book covers seen today).   It was at this pint that I determined that fantastical themes could be painted with "fine art" aesthetics, and this very much made me interested in pursing art as a career.   As an adult, I became friends with Larry Elmore and have gone on a lot of his artist retreats, he's a great guy and I would consider him to be a mentor of mine.  I've even managed to buy some of the original paintings themselves, for my own collection.

Sandra: For most artists setting out, it's going out and buying copies of ImagineFX and going through the step-by-step instructions on the DVD that comes with the magazine, but what made you want to buy Bob Ross videos?

Jasmine:  It's hard to imagine now, but when I was 11-12 years old, there was no internet.  My school did not have any sort of serious painting instruction (they were focused more on things like papier-mache, cutting out construction paper, coloured pencils, stuff like that).   My parents never enrolled me in extra-curricular activities like art lessons, there wasn't a community centre, these sorts of things were not part of my environment.   This would have been back in 1990 - my family did not have any cable TV.  The only art show on was "The Joy of Painting" on PBS - Bob Ross would be there every weekend, showing how to paint, which I was very interested in learning but did not have the opportunities to learn elsewhere.  I won the spelling bee that year and came into some money, so I hit the art supply store and stocked up on VHS Bob Ross tapes, brushes, paints, canvases and even a VCR and TV (from the pawn shop, hehe) so I could learn how to paint.  Even though it's not anything stylistically or thematically similar to the paintings I do myself, I still learned a lot of the basics (types of brushes, background painting, colours, etc.) from Bob Ross, and most importantly - as his program was aptly titled  - the sheer joy of sitting down and painting for the sake of painting.

Sandra: Out of all your paintings, which would you count as your ultimate favourite?

Jasmine:  That is hard to say - it changes a lot!  I thin my favourite today is Arcimboldo Mermaid - http://www.strangeling.com/shop/fine-art-prints/arcimboldo-mermaid/  it was so fun to paint, and I love sea critters.

Sandra: What is the best compliment you have ever had on your artwork?

Jasmine:   I think the best compliment I can get, and I get it often several times a day - is when fans get my artwork tattooed on them.  I'm like "Wow, you like that painting more than even I do, you're gonna see it every day for the next sixty years!"   There are thousands of people now with tattoos of my artwork and every time it makes me very happy to see.

Sandra: If you could have a fantasy pool party, who would you invite?

Jasmine:   Would it sound trite if I said I'd invite my sisters and their kids?  I miss them a lot today.  If not them, I'd have to go with inviting some plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and trilobites.  Three of my favourite extinct water creatures.  You didn't say they had to be humans!

Sandra: What would you say to budding artists out there about developing their own signature style?


Jasmine:  I would always suggest that an artist spend a few years developing their work, finding their own unique voice, figuring out what they want to say to the world, and creating a solid body of work before jumping into the commercial side of things.  Sort out the art stuff first, THEN worry about the business stuff.   I couldn't tell you how many times I get emails or visits at shows from budding artists who basically have a portfolio or website of only 5 or 6 paintings, and all those paintings are basically rip-offs of current artists, cartoon characters (or more often than not, my own artwork, lol), and they are trying to submit them to galleries, trying to sell prints at conventions, trying to open Etsy stores, etc. and don't understand why they're not immediately making a living at it.  It's also very important to make sure that you truly enjoy the creation aspect of art - the physical aspect of sitting in a chair 10-18 hours a day (that's what I average) and actually putting paint on canvas the whole time.  I got an email the other day from a budding artist complaining - "I get so bored painting after an hour, I can't think of anything to paint, I don't want to spend years practising, my hand hurts if I try too hard, wah wah wah.  What is your advice for me to be a good artist fast?"   And to that, I just couldn't think of anything to say other than "Maybe you shouldn't be an artist?"

Where to find Jasmine Becket - Griffith's art and contact details:
http://www.strangeling.com/
http://www.strangelinguk.com/
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/strangeling