spotted: Jeremy Fish

April 11, 2012

illustrators

I’ve already included some of his work in my post on skate and snowboard design, but his art beholds more than clean prints on shiny snowboards. Therefore, I present to you: Jeremy Fisher, a crazy bearded guy from San Francisco who works as a fine artist (exhibiting internationally) and a commercial illustrator (he’s done numerous collaborations with skating and clothing companies, he’s designed for Nike and worked with Aesop Rock amongst others and he also designs viynl toys, album covers, murals,…). Whoever is interested in scoring a gadget, have a look at his online store umbrellamarket on his website sillypinkbunnies you can see the material of all his art shows.

He has a very recognisable style starring lots of animals (bunnies, beavers, badgers, turtles) and symbols (skulls, hearts, cars, birds, daggers and dudes), which he calls his “library of characters and symbols”. But his work is also characterized by detailed patterns, clearcut colourful lines and – you could call it – ‘esherlike’ dualities and transformations. Some say his images balance between cute and creepy and I think that’s what makes them all the more attractive.

At first sight I thought his art was vector-based, but now that I’ve learnt his art is handmade, often painted on wooden canvasses, I admire him even more. And I’m all the more intrigued now that I know that his art is often based upon American folk tales. Because, as a language teacher, I’m highly interested in folktales. And as a matter of fact, I’m waiting for my dad to edit some more tales for me to illustrate, so dad, get to work!