#blake jones

Where your space is located: My studio is in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, its about a mile from my apartment so its insanely convenient for a homebody like me.

Can you describe to folks a little about your studio or creative art space? It’s actually a giant beautiful room with a ton of natural light (super important) I saw my work getting bigger and bigger and my apartment just wasnt cutting it. I’ve leaned its pretty important for me to have the separation because if I’m home its very easy to succumb into laying on the couch or slacking off. Having a separate spot lets me focus just on stuff i need to get done and every minute I’m slacking off there is just wasting time and money.

What’s a typical day in the studio like for you?  I’m a pretty early bird, so I usually wake up go to the studio I have a little coffee pot and a communal fridge for snacks and stuff. But most days it’s just me doing little bits of 5-6 projects all once. Lay paint down on this, ink this while it’s drying, sand down this panel while that settles, etc. There’s never really a game plan just kinda go in the morning and see what i didn’t finish the day before.

What type of things do you keep around the studio to inspire you or motivate you?  So I share a space with my buddy Jeff (jpak4ever) on insta, and we are both game and anime nerds, so like the first week we moved into it we got a tv, an n64, dreamcast,snes, and a bunch of manga and art books.  We set everything up and then we’re like wait, these are just distractions; we are just trying to turn this place into a playground, so we turned all of it off and haven’t really touched it sense. As far as specific inspiration, we printed out a big poster of some little cartoon character, and it says something like “I applaud you in pursuing your dreams” or some other corny thing like that. It’s the best.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen around your studio or out the studio window? What’s your favorite thing about where it is located? My studio overlooks a railroad, so trains are going by all day and night. It’s pretty nice seeing all the graffiti slowly rolling by on them, lots of really good bombs and really dumb tags–I’m all about both. 

For folks coming to House of Vans Chicago SESSIONS, what will you be creating for attendees that evening?  I’ve been playing with just some overall new color pallets and figuring out ways to do large scale work quicker and easier. Trying to stay pretty relaxed and loose for the event.

Whose studio would you like to peek into?  It would 100% have to be either Barry McGee or Dabsmyla. Both HUGE HUGE inspirations for me. I just don’t even understand how their brains work honestly.