#hellen jo

Found Hellen Jo’s concept Amethyst in the movie

[First two images: Screenshots of Amethyst in Vidalia’s garage/art studio, featuring a painting behind Amethyst of her in hoop earrings, a coat, and striped pants]

Hellen Jo is an illustrator and cartoonist living in Los Angeles, California. Her work, which includes watercolor paintings, comics, zines, and casual apparel, consists primarily of sullen and intimidating Asian American teenaged girls frightening the locals and disrespecting authority.

What's your favorite memory from past ICON conferences?

Before her ICON10 talk, Ako Castuera wordlessly walked on stage, performed a silent Okinawan karate form, then kicked over Josh Cochran's stage props with a bold yell. I felt chills of power, pride, and glowing respect and I get chills just thinking about it!!!

Tell me about your practice!

I make a mix of comics, zines, and paintings for gallery shows. I do the tiniest bit of freelance illustration and I sustain myself via mailorder of graphic clothing that I design and prints of my work. I spend a lot of time drawing on computer paper and Post-Its, a smaller amount of time panicking over Arches watercolor paper, and about 10% of my time kicking and screaming at an old Wacom tablet attached to a nonfunctioning Cintiq where I color digitally. I draw angry teen girls exclusively, to the point of forgetting how to draw the rest of the world, and I sketch them from photo reference, real-life sightings, and memory. I'm currently working on a short coming-of-age comic, drawn on cheapo printer paper with 2B pencils, Post-Its, and correction tape.

What is your studio/office space like?

My home office is essentially a child's bedroom covered in trinkets, posters, stickers, knick-knacks, a bookshelf full of zines, graphic novels, ghost story paperbacks, CDs and cassette tapes, and drawing/shipping supplies/printed shirts stuffed everywhere in between. I have a deep need to be surrounded by my precious junk assortment. In that pile are two large desks, laid out side by side against one wall; one desk is the electronic prison, where my Mac, Cintiq, second computer screen, laser printer, giclee printer, and large-bed scanner are located. The other desk houses my adjustable drawing surface, my heavy-duty guillotine paper cutter (for trimming zines), and a miniature Korean shaman shrine I built for my last gallery show, FOLK MEDIC. The room is my sanctuary, but it can be distracting, so I am also subletting a bare concrete bunker of a studio 15 minutes away, where I am working on my comic pages.

What's your hometown and where do you currently live?

I was born in the South, in Mississippi, and my family moved around a lot in my early childhood, but I mainly grew up in San Jose, California and I consider myself a Bay Area native. I currently live in Los Angeles, California.

Who are some of your favorite emerging creatives?