Notes on the D&AD President Lecture: James Jarvis

Peacock Theatre, Thursday 3 November 2006

"I think talking about influences is incredibly obvious."
His influences are listed as follows:
Herge's Tin Tin, Robert Altman's film Popeye, Little Hippo books, Mike McMahon's
drawings in 2000AD, Gary Panter of RAW magazine, Terry Man and work by Richard Scarry.

Jarvis says of Panter: "He was the last artist I really wanted to be before I became myself."


"I like quite existential things."
Jarvis likes illustrations that are full of pathos, suffering and 'philosophy'.
Richard Scarry is good because he gets to 'the essence of things'.

"It's to do with building worlds and assembling realities in a chaotic world."
Jarvis believes Herge is very good, like Scarry, at presenting 'complete worlds'.
He doesn't use the word 'fantasy' but maybe this is what he is alluding to?
Or maybe the worlds are nearly perfect and the details of mise-en-scene match the needs
of the characters who populate those worlds. Building a world that is 'functional'?
Later he says that: "I want things to be very real and draw in a perfectly imagined way".
Also, he says settings are important but characters are secondary. This seems especially true of his final exhibition of work for the RCA.

"Not just an illustrator for hire. People are hiring me for my world".
Jarvis is popular is Japan. He designed Toto - a mascot for the Japanese Football Lottery.
He wanted to keep creative control over his potato-headed characters and luckily the clients didn't want to 'buy into' his existing world. So Jarvis created a totally new character for them.

"We're men in dungarees but we happen to make Art"
Jarvis recounts the story of a favourite book on Avant Garde art.
The photographs included in the book (which belonged to his mother) shows men of action
and activity. In fact, the artists look like artisans or people who are involved in a process.
They are industrious. eg Cy Twombly.

"I like process and the industrial nature of what I do."
Jarvis doesn't like Rothko so much/any more.
He is moving away from Romanticism and towards Realism.
Gustave Dore's Rime of the Ancient Marriner is another favourite of his.

JARVIS SITS AT A DESK ONSTAGE AND DRAWS.
THE IMAGES ARE PROJECTED ONTO A SCREEN BEHIND HIM, IN REAL-TIME.

"I got bored of drawing policemen and wanted to draw men with elaborate moustaches
and wigs"
Jarivs likes 'funny things'.

"Toys are a manifestation of drawing for me."
Jarvis is not into toys 'really'. They are a way of finding a living through drawing.
Doing toys has made him more 'independent'. Due to the financial success of his toy manufacturing, he can now "commission for myself, in a way".
Toys have made me much more logical. I think in 3D.

"I didn't intellectualize the process all the time .. but I asked: why do I draw things in this way?"
Jarvis starts with a bland character and then dresses it up.
He tries to make something elemental.
"I like the particular not the universal".
He tries to make something iconic.
Perhaps distillation would be a good word here? This makes his interest in Muller-Brockmann relevant. M-B reduced design to 'an almost mathematical process'.

He worries about his drawings. When he draws a tree he asks himself: Is this the right kind of tree? Does it fit the world he is trying to build?
His work might look simple but "blobs are always arrived at by a process of angst and pain".

"I hate the process of forgetting what things mean."
Jarvis likes the look of WW2 military helmets but they're not just 'aesthetic'.
You can't forget the conflict or the hats being German.
It might be suggested that this is the problem with pastiche, which is characterized by a lack of concern for the original. Jarvis seems to like playing around with forms but his work carries traces of the intentionality of parody. (See Frederick Jameson on Postmodernism).

"I flush with shame."
Jarvis has given up on re-touching his work using computers.
"Where's the drawing in that? I kinda forgot it."
He shows projects where he just kept drawing and kept the mistakes 'in'.
This leads to his current ethos: drawing as performance.
An A1 poster for Silas is drawn to size. He sat down and did it in one go (6 hours).
The monkey isn't good 'but it's honest'.

THE D&AD PRESIDENT THANKS JAMES JARVIS FOR GIVING AN INSIGHT TO THE WORLD OF 'A LUNATIC'. HE IS ONLY JOKING BUT THE AUDIENCE RESENT THE THROW-AWAY COMMENT. THE PRESIDENT REGRETS HIS FLIPPANT REMARK.

THE AUDIENCE MAKE IT CLEAR: JARVIS IS 'THE MAN'. LONG LIVE ILLUSTRATION!

James Jarvis portfolio
James Jarvis vinyl outlet