Talk about yourself—Who are you? Where are you located?
My name is James R. Eads, I’m a Los Angeles based artist working in multiple mediums. Lately I’ve been working on a new tarot deck as well as art directing a video game!
What is your primary art theme? What inspires it?
I’m inspired by the mark making and movement of impressionism and the strangeness of surrealism. I find my inspiration from music, nature and the everyday events that shape us. Time and change are big themes in my work as well, it’s something I have always worked on portraying and will continue to be challenged and inspired by for the rest of my life.
What medium do you primarily use and what do you like about it?
I switch off between working digitially with a Wacom tablet in Photoshop and painting with gouache and water pastels. I like the forgiveness of working digitally, it allows me to quickly sketch out ideas in full color and not feel like I am losing the heart of a piece. With pastels and gouache it is all about the tactile feeling of the mediums on the rough wood panels I work on. It creates a very unique texture that is hard to replicate.
What artists influence you?
A ton, some of my favorites are Killian Eng, Raymond Lemstra, Nicolas Party, James Jean, Mab Graves, Daniel Martin Diaz, Amy Sol, Lauren YS, Nico Delort, Felicia Chao
Can you show me your favorite piece you have ever done?
That’s tough, but In the Garden There are Many Worlds is one of my favorites. I also love Moonflowers for Time Travellers
What started your love for art?
I started making art as a kid, both my parents are artistic and so I was lucky enough to be put into art classes at a young age. My love of art has been maintained by the desire to create and bring something into the world that can be beautiful, inspiring and long lasting.
If you were to try a new medium or style, what would you do?
I would like to start making immersive installations of worlds that I create in 2D developed into a 3D Space. I’m just starting on something immersive for the upstairs space at my work studio that I am very excited about.
What setting do you have to be in to create?
My best creating usually happens when I am alone late at night with headphones on in my home studio.
Have you ever had a piece go terribly but were able to redeem it/turn it around some how?
All the time. Usually when this happens I put it aside until I’m ready to revisit it. Sometimes this is days, sometimes months or years. With enough perspective everything looks different and the answers will come in time.
If you’ve done art jobs before, what was your favorite project?
I love creating tarot decks and other magical tools that require knowledge of art, packaging design and writing. One of my favorite client projects though was the tray art project with Delta x Coca Cola, I hand painted a plane tray that was then produced and put on planes for a little surprise art when people would put their trays down.
Echoes of Oddities 