Art & Life with Jack C. Gregory

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jack C. Gregory.

Jack C, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
My story is not too dissimilar from the Los Angeles transplant narrative. I was a born and raised Mid-Western illustrator that spent a large portion of their 20’s struggling to find a voice or an ability to make a mark in the visual art world. Due to tireless networking from my location in the Circle City, an opportunity from a Venice based production agency was presented to me and I jumped on it. [ Thank you, Taj.] I moved to LA in 2011 as a result and since then have experienced a whirlwind of growth. It was quite a paradigm shift to go from illustrating steak sauce labels in Indy to sitting in a meeting with people from Paramount Pictures my second day on the job. Luckily, I was able to keep it together.

I had a good foundation growing up. My parents were both extremely supportive of my artistic ambitions without being overbearing. My father was a medical illustrator for the VA hospital in Indianapolis, as well as an avid comic book and illustration fan. I really value the artistic conversations I had with him during my youth. He would present me with the work of artists like Frank Frazetta or Heinrich Kley and it implanted the idea of scope available for an illustrator.

I studied illustration at the Columbus College of Art and Design and gained a greater sense of how to take my raw skills and successfully apply them to proper composition and color theory. After five years of being a full-time agency designer and illustrator in Venice, I departed to focus solely on freelance work which is where I find myself today.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
A majority of the work I create is related to marketing in one way or another. My goal with everything I work on, whether it be key art for a film or a record sleeve for a band. is to create an incendiary image that will cause people to take pause and gain some sort of interest in the overall story we’re trying to tell. If I find myself with the task of illustrating something for an action film, I want the viewer to hear the car crashes or the gun blasts in their head as they’re looking upon the visuals.

Music is a huge influence on my work. I usually have a song in mind as I’m creating an image and use that as an influence to move forward. For example, I had the opportunity to illustrate a poster for Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior for a commission group and kept playing the Fu Manchu song “Hell on Wheels” on a loop as I worked on it. It’s as if I’m constructing a music video in my head and focusing on one clip from that video to illustrate.

I love the visual freedom that comes with being an illustrator. There aren’t really restraints we have to adhere to. We can augment perception, create a mood with lighting or color, exaggerate reality or present something that is not grounded in our everyday lives. I am extremely grateful for being in a position where I had a childhood dream of becoming a visual artist and saw it come to fruition. The fear of losing that is ultimately my biggest drive and inspiration.

How do you think about success, as an artist, and what do quality do you feel is most helpful?
I spent the first few years out of college obsessed with garnering a huge adoring audience and as a result was creating work that was more focused on the idea of what I thought people wanted to see. It didn’t really get me anywhere and I was completely burnt out with the constant failures. I had a moment of clarity where I decided to focus on me; turning myself into my own audience and concentrating on the kind of images I wanted to see. Essentially, if I could please myself, the image was a success. In a nice twist of fate, this new self-gratifying portfolio was the work that brought outward attention towards me. Being true to my own ideas and my own voice has led to working with amazing, forward thinking creative minds that have only made my work better and better.

If not for my work as a visual artist, I would not have the amazing support team I currently have in my personal life. All roads lead back to being an illustrator. I was in France last November having lunch and was completely overwhelmed with that experience and what brought me to that point. Had I not been an illustrator, I would have never left Indy, I wouldn’t be living in LA, I wouldn’t have the contacts I work with now or the people in my personal life I have now and I wouldn’t have been in France at that moment enjoying a nice array of breads and coffee. I literally wake up every day grateful for the life and experiences I get to have, all because I make images for a living. The life experiences as well as the continual growth as an illustrator has provided me with a life I could have never imagined.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
My work can be seen in some instances at the multiplex or in a record store or in a merch booth. If not there, I usually direct people to my Instagram account: instagram.com/jack_c_gregory. When I have material to sell I put them in my Big Cartel shop: jackgregoryart.bigcartel.com.

Contact Info:

• Email: jackgregoryart@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/jack_c_gregory
• Facebook: facebook.com/jackgregoryart
• Twitter: twitter.com/JackGregoryArt
• Other: coroflot.com/jack_c_gregory

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