Maris Jones's Aesthetic

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Transcript

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Maris Jones is a visual artist, photographer and an art director known partly for her retro fantasy mini movies on social media. There are also handcrafted worlds bursting with color and nostalgia. Working out of her Brooklyn studio, she builds elaborate sets from everyday materials, turning cardboard and paint into scenes that feel like a dream from another era. Her distinctive style has led to major collaborations with big name brands and tech giants and pop star Chapel Roan, including designing the set for Rhone's show stopping performance at this year's Grammy Awards. She shares her creative process in her book, Unlock youk Aesthetic, A Visual Guide to Finding youg Vibe. It's part guide, part creative workbook. It helps you build a toolkit to uncover your own personal visual style. Listeners of have any questions for Maris Jones about unlocking your own creativity or if you have a go to ritual, tool or place that sparks your imagination, give us a call, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. You can call in and join us on air or you can text that number. But right now, let's welcome Maris Jones. Hi, Maris.

[Maris Jones]

Hello. Thanks for having me.

[Alison Stewart]

So for people who haven't seen your work yet, how do you describe your art, your films, the world you create?

[Maris Jones]

Oh, man, it's sometimes hard for me because it's so many different things, but I basically say that I build immersive painterly worlds rooted in nostalgia with usually a dash of hand painted medieval fantasy magic and a sprinkle of rock and roll infusion into it.

[Alison Stewart]

That works for me great. Your social media is just full of these short videos, these mini movies that really transport with their elaborate sets, transporting us to a glamorous or a bygone era. When did you start making these mini movies?

[Maris Jones]

I've been creating ever since I was little. I saw the Clash of the Titans when I was a child. My father showed it to me, the original one, and I think I was about 6. And I was just so mesmerized by the stop motion use in that film that I started immediately making movies with my toys. So I've been making them for my entire life. But I think what you're probably talking about is I started the last 10 years on social media making those.

[Alison Stewart]

What was it about that stop motion action that really spoke to you, that it was sort of like your, your aha moment when you were a little kid?

[Maris Jones]

You know, I think that it was just so organic feeling. It was also otherworldly in the sense that it wasn't natural either. You know, the stop motion, it has all those. Those jittery motions. So it. But it's physically there and it's so detailed and unique looking. So I think that it was. Just felt like it should exist in real life, but it was from an alternate reality. And I just wanted to know how you could get that into your own work. It was just such a cool thing to visualize.

[Unknown]

How did your parents encourage your creativity?

[Maris Jones]

They were both artists, so they honestly were upset if I wasn't doing something creative, which is a very unique perspective, I suppose, in the big grand scheme of things. But they really. Anytime time I was interested in any type of creative endeavor, they really pushed me to like explore that. But they weren't very overbearing. So I felt like it was also I had a lot of freedom with it and didn't feel like it was forced upon me in the beginning. So I think I had a good foundation, you know, to create. But it was definitely a unique experience.

[Unknown]

And you've shared this in several interviews with how that. That have been done with you. You had a stroke when you were born, and you were born with cerebral palsy. And because of this you had to spend a lot of time alone as a kid. What do you remember about that alone time for you?

[Maris Jones]

I think that because I don't know if I was actually aware of the difference between me and other children, but physically I just wasn't able to keep up with them. So. And there was other things obviously that I. It was also different, but I wasn't able to keep up with them. So I think just by default, I naturally tended to keep to myself in many ways, just because it was something I can control myself. So I would spend so much of my time alone playing. And I think that it was this space for me to imagine what it would be like if I could be this. As strong as the other children, accomplish the other things in the same average way as everybody. So me playing with my toys could help me curate these stories that I wanted to play out because I just. I wanted to experience for myself. So I think that that helped me translate later with creating and making films.

[Unknown]

So you're a kid, you're being creative, you're doing it for yourself. You're letting your imagination come to life. When did you realize this could be a career? This is something I could actually do.

[Maris Jones]

You know, it's funny since also, even though I said my parents were very supportive and I felt very free, I also think that when I was a teenager, I went through a whole phase where my rebellion was not being creative. So for a long chunk of yeah, that's what happens when your parents are artists. You have to do the opposite. So instead of becoming an artist, I want to be like whatever a non creative family would be like. So I tended to keep away from it for a while. But at the end of the day, you can only be who you are. So I, of course ended up immediately once I left school, turning right back to almost as if I was playing like a child again, back to how I used to make videos. I just immediately reverted back. And then it was such a natural progression once I left college. And it was just making things that I wanted to make that all of a sudden, a couple like years later, it turned into a career. But I never set out to have a creative career, which is the interesting part of it, you know, I mean, I guess I started out, I wanted to have a creative career. Not in the way that it became.

[Unknown]

I guess that's so interesting that you didn't necessarily want it, but it ended up being true. And it speaks to your book a little bit because you say in the book that you should go back to what you did when you were a kid. Tell us a little bit more about that.

[Maris Jones]

Yeah, so basically I realized after, you know, diving back into all of this that I was basically just doing what I was doing when I was a child. And everything that I was making was based off of things that I loved as a child and. Or experienced or felt or whether it was good or bad. So it made me kind of understand that like as adults, we are just still very much our child selves and we just need to continue that path in just whatever form that is as an adult. That's what it is. And the thing about being a child is it's so pure. Whatever you gravitate towards is just so this is what I like. And it's just what I like. So it really kind of becomes this blueprint for who you are as a person as you're older, if you can't figure it out. Because we get so many just ideas in our heads and barriers and roadblocks to helping us just be who we are half the time just because we're aware of so many things.

[Unknown]

My guest is visual artist Maris Jones, who's built a retro fantasy creative world with her mini movies to major brand collaborations. Her new book is called Unlock youk Aesthetic, A Visual Guide to Finding youg Vibe. When you wrote this book, who did you Write it for.

[Maris Jones]

Oh, man. Honestly, I wrote it for pretty much, you know, I wrote it for everybody who's just trying to find themselves. You know, I think that it's. I think that everybody is creative to some degree, whether they've been practicing it or not. So if it's a new art student or if it's just a child, or if it's somebody who has a totally different lifestyle and they just want to start dabbling into being creative, or somebody who just wants to decorate their home, or, you know, you just want to change your style up, it's really for just anybody who's just trying to kind of, you know, maybe even search to find if they want to be creative, you know, so it's really just for. It's for everybody.

[Alison Stewart]

What does the word aesthetic mean to you?

[Maris Jones]

Well, I guess to me, it's a set of rules or guidelines that kind of equal to a visual style of somebody.

[Alison Stewart]

So when you're thinking about something from the beginning, ideas to it being completely created, can you walk us through what that's like? Are you a storyboarder? Are you somebody who touches something and thinks, oh, that'll be a good thing for. How does it go from the beginning idea to your finished product?

[Maris Jones]

So for me, and I. And I would say that it's probably different for everybody, but for me personally, usually I am inspired by either a color that I see on the street or, you know, in a photograph, or I'm inspired by an object that I see, the shape of it. I am so much inspired by music. Sometimes, sonically, I just. Something just immediately comes out in my head. I do have something called synesthesia, so it makes me associate color with sound. So whenever I hear music, I immediately see color and colors associated with it. And I didn't know I had that till way later in my life. I didn't realize it was a thing. It's. A lot of people have it with numbers, where they associate color with numbers. For me, it was sonic. So I think that also helps me really be able to see something in my head. So I usually start with music or a color, because color is my biggest inspiration, I guess. I'm obsessed with color. And I do not storyboard because I really. It will. It depends the level of the job, of course. You know, I'm gonna do some prep. If it's not just for me, but when we're talking about me just making stuff for myself, I do not storyboard. I do. I might write a simple shot list of visuals that I want to get Across, I write out, like, a little. Almost just like a synopsis of what I'm doing. And then I kind of just let myself go for it, because I think that's when you get kind of the most pure form of yourself. And it also takes away a lot of the pressure and makes it as just. Just free as possible. And I think that that really is such a key to just creation, is just thinking of it as play genuinely. So I. I will write down a little shot list or a synopsis, and then I will just kind of go from there and be like, what do I need? And then I just kind of go down a list of making the items that I need for the films, or I will purchase or source any items. And then I will kind of just take each day as it comes.

[Unknown]

It was interesting. In your book, you write that you should find inspiration or you might find inspiration in your daily life. What's an example of something where you found inspiration just in daily living?

[Maris Jones]

I mean, I would say that. I mean, for me, it's really just colors. That's what inspires me in my daily life. You know, like the color of flower.

[Unknown]

The color of somebody's sweater coming towards you.

[Maris Jones]

Exactly. Or just like just that tiny little piece of the sky. You know, just one little spot. Or like that little, you know, a poster on the. The. On the street that you see walking by, or just. That's really. I. When I see a color, I'm so, oh, I gotta make something with that.

[Unknown]

I'm looking at your book, and on page, I think it's 48. You have a bunch of questions for people to consider as they're trying to figure out what their. What their aesthetic is. Would you go through a couple of those questions with me?

[Maris Jones]

Sure. Yeah.

[Unknown]

All right. What type of aesthetics are you drawn to? Why are you drawn to them? Why are those important questions to ask?

[Maris Jones]

Because those would definitely be probably a good starting point if you didn't know where to begin. Just get cut to the chase. What, like, what is. What are the aesthetics that you are already drawn to? Because then you might be able to, like, kind of reverse engineer. What about. Those are best. You know, what. What about those that make you feel drawn to them?

[Unknown]

This is an interesting one. What emotions do you feel when you think about an aesthetic that you would like to have? Explain that a little bit.

[Maris Jones]

Well, it's like, not everybody wants to make art or. Or produce something because they want to feel happy. So sometimes it's for many different reasons. It could be because you want to Harness the feeling of sadness or anger. Or maybe you do want to be positive. Maybe you do want to feel warm or cozy. And there's so many ways to approach that. It's not just about one or the other. So that's why I feel like attaching. How do you want something to feel? Because that's also how you're going to. To execute and like what you're making the most as well.

[Unknown]

All right, we talked about colors, but then you have two here that are very interesting. What materials and textures come to mind when you think about your aesthetics and what patterns and themes come to mind? What kind of textures are you talking about?

[Maris Jones]

I mean. I mean. Well, I'm talking about textures of surfaces, whether it's, you know, are we talking about smooth marble? Are we talking about rough rocks? Are we talking about fuzzy carpets? You know, all these things are very different textures. They're very different sensory items. They create a lot of different dynamic, like, moments in spaces. So it's just. It's so important to think about the exact textures and just what you're drawn to and what those also convey, because also, textures can be associated with feelings as well.

[Alison Stewart]

We're talking with Maris Jones. Her book is a visual guide, Defining youg Unlock your Aesthetic. Let's talk about Chapel Roan. You've worked with her, including on the Grammys. How did that collaboration come about?

[Maris Jones]

Um, you know, we. She was following me on social media, and our management was connected. So it's just kind of a serendipitous moment.

[Alison Stewart]

When you say serendipitous, what do you mean?

[Maris Jones]

In the sense that she had been following me and was kind of a fan, and then also that our management had also known each other, so it was just an easy connection, and it was a really great moment.

[Alison Stewart]

What do you think was behind the connection? Cause you can meet people, you can follow them on social media, you can like each other's work, but there's something different when you connect with them.

[Maris Jones]

Yeah, I think that for both of us, you know, I'm super campy when it comes to what I'm creating. It's a humorous point of view, but it's also very loud. But it's also. It's messy, it's artsy, it's rough around the edges, and, you know, similar, you know, influences that just in general. So there's that. So I feel like the combination of all those things are also our love for drag. I just feel like all those moments created something that, you know, just made it work really well.

[Alison Stewart]

What was the vision behind the Pink Pony Club that you did for the Grammys?

[Maris Jones]

It was. The vision was Trojan Horse. So it was her Trojan horse that she was riding into the rodeo, the Grammy rodeo. And it has giant tires, whether people realize it or not.

[Alison Stewart]

Did you feel pressure designing for something as someone as big as Chapel Room?

[Maris Jones]

I. I definitely. I definitely do, you know, especially with the Pink Pony, just because that song has such a following and people already had so many ideas of what the Pink Pony would be, just because it's something that everybody's already probably thought about who's. Who is into it. So I. It was for that. It was very. I wanted to make sure I was doing right by the people. But also, you have to, you know, keep to your. Keep to your roots. So I felt the pressure, but I also. Sometimes I. Most of the time, I'm just. You can't. You can't please everybody. So you just got to go for it and just do what you feel is right.

[Alison Stewart]

You're also a photographer, I should mention as well, we just finished talking to the folks, the New York creative director for New York magazine, about what makes a great photographer. Great photograph. What do you keep in mind when you were setting up a photo shoot?

[Maris Jones]

I keep it well, Lighting, first of all, that's very important. I keep in mind the colors and just the atmosphere. For me, the atmosphere is super important. I am always thinking about how thick the air is or how thin the air is, if there's wind, if there. What. How is the light looking through the atmosphere? So that is honestly sometimes my biggest thought when I'm thinking of photo shoots and what I. What I care about.

[Unknown]

What about costumes?

[Maris Jones]

You know, it's funny. Costumes are sometimes the last element that I think of. Seriously. Yeah. Everybody's always thinking that. I. And I love fashion. It's actually one of my favorite things in my daily life. But when it comes to photo shoots, the costume is the last part I'm thinking about. But I. Of course I'm thinking about it at the end. It's just the last. It's just the last thing I actually do think about.

[Unknown]

That's so funny, because your costumes are kind of wild.

[Maris Jones]

I know. For whatever reason, it's the last thing I visualize. I don't know why. And sometimes that's just how it is.

[Unknown]

We're talking to Maris Jones. Her book is called Unlock youk A Visual Guide to Finding youg Vibe. First of all, I have to tell people you're on Zoom. Are you in your studio?

[Maris Jones]

I am, yeah.

[Unknown]

There's a lot of wild in there.

[Maris Jones]

Yeah, there's a lot of stuff in here. Don't believe me when they say I trip over things. I trip over things constantly.

[Unknown]

What's your studio? I mean, do you have a ritual with your studio? Do you just wander through and whatever catches your attention?

[Maris Jones]

Yeah. So for me, when I'm making my own stuff, I so rely heavily on just walking around and looking to see what I have. So. Because sometimes it's, you know, if you have such an idea in your head of what exact item you're going to use, it might limit yourself. So I like to keep the freedom of just being able to see everything out so I can kind of browse and be like, oh, this might be work. This might work perfectly. And I don't. I didn't even remember I had it, you know.

[Unknown]

So when's the next time we will see you? What are you working on?

[Maris Jones]

Well, right now I am actually working on Chapelroan's tour that's going on. So you can see my work on her visuals on the screens that she actually has a show tomorrow. So that's the next time.

[Unknown]

If you wanted to give someone one thing they could do to sort of unlock their aesthetic, to really think about how they want to vibe in the world, what would it be?

[Maris Jones]

Honestly, just stop thinking about everybody else's aesthetic and think about all the things that you loved as a child. Think about what you're drawn to just in your daily life. What are those things? And that's all those little pieces are the roadmap to who you are.

[Unknown]

My guest has been visual artist Maris Jones. The neighbor book is Unlock your A visual guide to finding your vibe. Maris, it was really nice to meet with you.

[Maris Jones]

So nice talking.

[Unknown]

And that is all of it for today. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening. I appreciate you. I'm going to go find my vibe and I'll meet you back here tomorrow morning.

[Maris Jones]

One sausage McMuffin with egg, please.

[Unknown]

Okay, your total is.

[Maris Jones]

Wait, let's negotiate. How's about you throw in hash browns for a dollar?

[Unknown]

Well, yes sir, that price is already a dollar.

[Maris Jones]

Take it or leave it. Take it, I guess.

[Unknown]

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