CHRIS JEHLY INTERVIEW

Chris Jehly is a multidisciplinary artist from Sonoma County who now resides in Asheville, North Carolina. In this interview we talk process, persistence, disaster and all things art. I hope you enjoy!

What up Chris thanks for doing this man! Tell the people who you are and what you do if you will good sir.

My name is Chris Jehly and I’m a multidisciplinary artist currently residing in Asheville, North Carolina.

So you are originally from Sonoma County were you born and raised there?

I was born in Santa Rosa. I grew up in Cotati, California and lived there for 26 years.

We got that Cotati connection. We also both went to Thomas Page. When did you start getting into art? What were some of your first memories around it?

My first memories of drawing were trying to emulate the cartoon Ghostbusters which I believe was on regularly (or maybe just Saturday mornings). I was obsessed. I remember recognizing that the Ghostbuster blister packs containing the action figures had paintings of the characters. I wanted to know how those drawings and paintings were made. My drawings of them were these wirey armed blobs with all matter of scented felt tip markers; it was a melange of child safe chemicals and bad drawings.

So rad. That was me with Batman haha! When did you start taking art seriously or at least start perusing it in a way that was more than just doodling? Did you go to school for art? What is your professional training background like?

Most of the drawing I did was self taught; I didn’t take directions too well. In high school I wanted to take art classes but the pre college program I was a part of wouldn’t recognize it as school credit or a necessary pursuit. I think that’s when I had bridged out to graff, self taught airbrushing, and finding social groups outside of the norm. It wasn’t until I got to Sonoma State that I truly started to pursue art on a serious basis. Intaglio Printmaking was a major influence on how I began to understand real process; it would be the way I’d continue to understand and make art no matter the medium. At the same time graff was a huge part of my life but separate when it came to what I was making in class. I remember after I graduated SSU in 2005 there would be a meld between the 2 disciplines. It wasn’t until 2009 I’d go to graduate school at Columbia university.

Interesting. I know a few people who have followed a similar route. It’s so hard in my opinion to take direction artistically when you are young and trying to figure out what feels good to you. So graff and airbrushing influences played a strong role in a lot of the art you were creating for a while. I remember in 05 I think you did those Nike monster sneakers in Gone Surfing Petaluma. A lot of that style and theme played into your future works. How long does it normally take you to learn a new medium and feel proficient with it?

So I recently started using watercolor full time and it is constantly a learning process (just like airbrush, intaglio, spraypaint etc). It’s been a little over 2 years with watercolor and I feel like every time I paint I’m learning something new. I don’t watch videos or tutorials, I really want to make all the mistakes my self and find the solutions myself. Also this will allow me to develop my own process and vision.

That is so cool to hear because influence is so huge in creating and it’s very easy to imitate others. Your watercolors are so unique. I wanna touch on that in a second but what was Columbia like? What discipline did you study there and how beneficial do you feel it was to your growth and career?

Columbia was a trip; it was nothing like what I had anticipated. I went for printmaking but graduated making large mixed media paintings. I made a ton of work that was mostly destroyed. I started making large oil paintings and once invited a few people to come in and destroy the painting by spray painting over it. I eventually taught myself how to use pin-striping brushes and spray paint to make much larger works towards the end of the 2 year program. You’ll meet all sorts of people that are weird, amazing, intolerable and plain otherworldly. Having Kara Walker in the studio was a huge highlight of the studio program, lots of conversations on drawing and Art Brut favorites. Lari Pittman was an incredible studio visit too. Also having Jerry Saltz come to the studio was pretty cool; I remember that being an incredible experience. It was also a whirlwind of finding one’s place and figuring out who you were as an artist. Also I met my wife while at Columbia, I wouldn’t trade that for anything!

How cool! There is something liberating about destroying your own art. I went to art quest in Santa Rosa for one year and my peers were just how you explained, I couldn’t imagine at a big university! So out of college did you start working in the art world? How did you find yourself in Asheville North Carolina?

New York was a whirlwind of ups and downs after school ended. There was a moment where there was interest in my work, I got a nice sized studio and I thought that was it.. then it didn’t work out. Couldn’t afford the studio, I had made some newer works that didn’t really go anywhere and there was a 2 year time period of not making anything at all. I think it was around 2013-14 that I started making the cartoonish surreal mash up paintings. They took months or sometimes a year to make.. I definitely had the patience at the time. When the pandemic hit my wife and I were held up in our apartment for 11 months. It was an extraordinary set of circumstances that led us to Asheville.

The artists struggle. It’s always something. So I wanna talk about Asheville but first I wanna talk about those cartoon mashup paintings. A year on a painting is serious dedication especially after some of your paintings didn’t perform how you would like. Add on top a period of not creating. Were you sure that they would do well or was it not about that at that point? Where did the inspiration come from for those?

The expectation at the time was the paintings needed to work no matter if I had lost interest or not. There would be a feeling of relief when I’d get one of the cartoon paintings done but also a feeling of depression; like I could have made this better and who the hell would want this . But it didn’t start out that way. The cartoon paintings came out of printmaking, graffiti, comics and my favorite era of Disney which was the 1940’s; it was the most beautiful and sophisticated animation at the time; but was also equally dark, propagandist, and just fucked up. I really liked collage; and made the paintings as if they were collages, painting different sections all over the painting not knowing if it would work and forcing myself to make it fluid and coherent. I truly believe in the “Role of the Bones” approach to art making. If everything is planned it just feels like labor. If it’s just labor for the sake of completion then it’s painfully uninteresting to me. Also it was important that there was some recognizable pop imagery that I could simmer through the painting process and a mindset that I was Adobe/Illustrator and could make all manipulations, edits and decisions in real time without forethought or planning. I should be able to mentally visualize anything and edit in real time.

Incredible, I love those paintings and it makes me look at them with new eyes now. What an awesome practice and execution. So you move to Asheville and things are seemingly going well and then the hurricane comes. What was it like being in Asheville as a working artist and what was the community like before the disaster?

Hurricane Helene was unreal and the remnants are still very present even now… the French Broad river rose 25 feet literally swallowing everything in its path moving semi trucks and shipping containers like bath toys. Trees, power lines and signs were downed and strewn effortlessly by extreme wind. The Internet was out, the cell service was out and all electricity was out. The only updates were on the radio if you had one. It’s was like nothing I had ever seen before but echoed the experience and images of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. When the water started to subside over the next week or so what was left behind was indescribable. It was like bomb went off; the weather was still very warm and the mud gave off a distinct rotten scent. I did community clean up efforts in the River Arts district which was level and right next to the French Broad River. I brought water, gatorade and other essentials that were of immediate need from Charlotte; there was no way of getting anything in Asheville as stores weren’t open or completely out. A few days later I got the courage to make landscape paintings of what I saw and experienced . The river had taken everything here in Asheville as well as the surrounding areas. I saw no other way to process it.

I can’t imagine processing something so horrific let alone trying to paint it. There is so much emotion and heaviness to the paintings you have done on that subject but I see so much hope in them for some reason, I don’t know if it was your application or what exactly. I saw a lot of people unfortunately lost most of their art to the hurricane. What has it been like rebuilding the community?

The arts community, the community at large, local businesses, even just people, are still in the process of rebuilding, recovering, and figuring out what to do next. There’s been an overwhelming support for the arts and local businesses as well as individual people. It will be years before there’s a sense of normalcy; but what even is ‘normal’ anymore? The paintings are a reflection of what is still happening and what things still look like in most areas. My hope is that the paintings will bring more attention to the magnitude of Hurricane Helene.

How do you execute these paintings? My understanding is that you do them actually out in the wild is that correct?

So it’s been almost 3 years since I transitioned to using watercolor and Plein Air painting. I had reached a point with the studio and the acrylic work where I just lost interest and didn’t feel inspired. When I started painting outside (Plein Air) it felt like everything inside me woke up again; I was no longer confined to the studio. I was instantly hooked; I took my understanding of ‘space’ from my early days of skateboarding, Bmx and graffiti and used those lenses to interact with and interpret nature, I felt like a kid again. The storm paintings were a combination of photos I took during clean up and the following days. It occurred to me that idea of “site specificity” no longer applied. The landscape here had totally changed and had objects and earth that came from another place, another town, another mountain. It was important to me that the images also came from memory of what I saw and experienced. The paintings could be almost any place here in Asheville or outside the city. Everything was rendered the same and its identity virtually non existent. I really had to dig deep within myself to see what I was seeing.

That is incredible. Absolutely love that concept. The idea of the site not applying to the work must have been such a freeing feeling. Sometimes those little things matter so much. One thing you said stuck out to me. Applying your understanding of ‘space’ with skateboarding and those other lenses to the work. I have never concretely thought of it like that before. So interesting. How much time do you usually spend with a new medium before practicing another? You said you’ve been doing watercolors for a little over two years?

I think as of now, watercolor is the muse. There’s a feeling of endless opportunity to explore what watercolor can do for me. I don’t really ever plan on changing mediums, it just sort of happens. It’s never ending though because everything that has happened personally with regards to drawing, painting, spray painting, airbrush, printmaking etc, always influences the next phase of my interest. I can’t imagine just working with one medium or making the same thing over and over. I literally have to start over and get re-immersed and figure things out as I go.

What are some mediums or styles you haven’t explored yet but have peaked your interest?

Dude, it’ll happen when it happens. If I force myself to do something it can just go badly for me. When I was making the acrylic paintings I was also making drawings and spray painting too. I think I feel at peace just focusing on the one medium for now which is relatively new for me. I have no idea where it’s going to take me but I’m going to role with it.

That’s awesome. I always struggle sticking to one medium and jump all over the place excited to see how far you go with it. How do you feel about the art world as a whole and shows and galleries ? What are some things you have observed working with galleries and trying to get your art out there in that fashion?

I think about the time I started painting watercolor I stopped focusing on galleries. I just focused on making work, evolving and seeing where that would take me. It wasn’t until then someone would reach out and ask: hey you want to hang some work in our showroom or hey I have this group show happening, do you have any work you can show? Eventually it snow balled. I think the more I focused on making the work the more opportunities came. I try not to get too obsessed; if the work fits then it fits and if it doesn’t… well I’ll put my head down and make more.

I agree. Kind of related, do you find your self more stoked on artists that are always producing and showing art or those that are more mysterious and show less of what they create?

I’ve been delving backwards in time with regards to art that I’ve been looking at and excited about. Then there’s no real question as to output, because it’s out there and has been out there for a long time. It’s like revisiting a band you haven’t heard in a while and realizing that, man this old stuff is great! It also helps when interacting with new artists or artists I’ve never heard of. I guess that’s what makes me excited.

Speaking on music what is some of your favorite music? Do you listen to music when you create?

Believe it or not I’ve completely taken music out of the equation. I was listening to a lot of metal for the longest time; it drowned out the voices and racket in my head. But since I started painting landscapes I just prefer silence. Seems to be working out ok, also I can find my own rhythm. Since my wife started DJing at the local radio station I tend to listen to and get to hear stuff I would have never heard.

New music that you typically don’t listen to is always awesome. Always sparks creativity for me. What are some of your favorite comics? Do you have a favorite era, illustrator, or writer in the comic world?

I really like Basil Wolverton, Robert Crumb, Charles Burns. I have a small collection of RAW magazine from the 80’s. They’re incredible books. Each one has 1 chapter of Maus by Art Spiegelman and some had full pages of Gary Panter art and Sue Coes drawing of Ronald Regan as a masked gutted pig. I used to have a small collection of pre code horror too.

Hell yeah! That is dope to have in your collection. I got one more for you. How do you deal with creative block? It happens to the best of us. What are some ways in which you have been able to mediate that?

Sometimes change of scenery really helps, but making a shit load of mistakes actually helps to cleanse the brain bramble. It all has to pass; don’t throw anything away. The only way is to compare, learn and move forward.

Great advice. Well shit man it’s been awesome. I really appreciate your time. Anything you wanna plug or any last words? Fire away!

Dude, I appreciate you asking! I hope everything sounds ok. I really appreciate your time too. Really looking forward to see what you make next.

Thanks again. 🔒

You can follow Chris @chrisjehly