FOR YOUR INDUSTRY (FYI) MAGAZINE 5-26-03
Copyright For Your Industry Magazine
2002-2003 All Rights Reserved
Words by Billie Blunt / Posted on May 26, 2003
Come with me, let's travel 17,000 miles into the mind of Cojo - Art Juggernaut! Unfortuantely there's no map to adhere to, but if we simply follow the path of these stupendous pieces of art, we are sure to discover where Cojo's creativity reside. His creative energies have sparked the minds of many people, and those same people, including myself, have continued supporting Fubu, The Source, XXL, and Maxim Magazine, and Cojo deserves his props for perpetuating our interest in those products. His artwork might even be a part of one of your daily routines. Imagine this: You decide to slide into those Fubu jeans with the famous Fat Albert character decorated everywhere. But before leaving your house, you're in search of the XXL Magazine that was just bought yesterday, which contains some characters by Cojo. Now you're a passenger on a downtown train, 23 minutes away from purchasing that hot independent released CD by Shice, which was disigned by Cojo.
Hmm. Could there be more? Read the interview.
Would you say that your tremendous talent is a natural God given talent, or a God given talent that took years to improve and master?
Cojo: "Neither. It's funny how people sometimes see artists' talent as "God Given," or "Gifted," as in "A gift from God." I've seen flicks where a person is talking about an artist and they are like; "His hands were blessed by the hand of God!" That's high and mighty praise, and in my opinion, a phenomenal load of BULLSHIT! Artists are human! Some of us might have near lethal amounts of turpentine and charcoal in our bloodstream, but that hardly renders us Gods. Talent, sure there are people that are born more talented than others. Some people are born being able to whistle better then others. Some people can belch the alphabet, and fart the national anthem, it doesn't mean a God blessed them with these abilities. A lot of people that show ability in the art fields are encouraged at a young age to express themselves and keep at it. Some aren't, and end up pushing their creativity down other paths, but the ones that are work hard at it. They draw their asses off for years, and then they become good, really good, great, or even exceptional.
Getting good at art isn't learned overnight. These people practice every day, God or no God, if a person is determined enough, and they have ability to render things accurately, or stylize them in a way that is unique to themselves, then they can be classified as having talent. Did God give them this talent? That depends on what they believe in. If an artist feels that calling on a divine power to help aid him in spreading some colored pigments onto a piece of cloth by maneuvering a stick with some squirrel hairs glued to it in hopes of perfecting the illusion of sweat beads dripping off a bottle of Coke for an ad they are designing is necessary, then pray on, what-ever it takes to get the job done.
Artists come in all shapes, sizes, races, and creeds. That's one of the great things about art, like music, it can speak to all languages, without saying a word. Most art is subjective anyway. One man's talent, is another man's toilet, when it's displayed in a gallery, upside down and signed. Creativity though, in my opinion, is a different story. It's not just the talent of the way an artist renders, but the idea behind the work an artist produces that makes an artist stand out from the pack. When someone, just from seeing a piece of art, starts to feel something, makes a connection,and takes something away from the experience of viewing the art, then the art is successful. The creativity has shown through and touched the viewer. This is only my perception, my opinion, so crucify me if you will.
Creativity, I feel, is that spark that forms in the artist's mind. The idea that is the piece, before the piece is realized with paint or pencil. Who knows? Maybe everyone is born with creativity, but few nurture it. You can always learn the skill of drawing with lots of practice, but creativity is something that isn't learned. It tells an artist what to draw, and where to take the viewer, or where "IT" will take the artist."
Before receiving any kind of national exposure for your artwork, how was that initial buzz about your art created?
Cojo: "I think the first time I realized that my art could actually take me somewhere, make a buzz for me, or at least get people's attention was my freshman year of college (School of Visual Arts). I saw this shitty photocopy somebody had put up on all the bulletin boards around campus for an open mic the school was having in the amphitheater. It was just typography in a generic computer font. I was big into the open mic poetry shit at the time, and wanted to read at the event, and wanted people to come. I knew nobody would come with that punk ass flyer, so I ripped one down, went back to my dorm, and drew a new one with all the important info. I made a black and white drawing of this crazy beatnik holding a coffee cup, with the word FREE!!! Really big on it. Then the; where, what, and when. I experimented with shit like this a lot in school. I found that whenever you put the word FREE with three explanation points behind it on a poster on a college bulletin board, a student will read it, and will usually investigate it further.
Well, I photocopied these flyers at Marvel Comics, cause by this time I was doing freelance comic book coloring for them and still had a functioning electronic swipe key to their offices from back in my intern days, so the copier was free for me. I then walked around my campus and ripped down the old photocopy for the event and put up my own in it's place. On the night of the open mic, the place had packed 300 people, and the event was crazy! Got much love for the poetry, and never let it slip that I did the old switcheroo of the flyers. I later found out that this was supposed to be the last open mic the school was going to host, because the previous open mic's only averaged about 25 attendees per event. They were going to stop doing them due to lack of interest! They changed their mind that night when amazingly 300 members of the student body suddenly, and apparently out of nowhere had an urge to hear some "FREE!!!" spoken word. Nobody could understand what brought the crowds out in mass. Nobody except me I suppose. The school threw more open mics after that, and boy, so confusing. What happened? They must have been baffled when at the next spoken word only 150 people showed up. And the one after that, only 75! They shouldn't have used their same lame typography style flyers. So confused! Humm, I dunno, maybe it was, umm, maybe it was because your advertising SUCKED ASS!!!
Eh, I had already moved on. After the open mic flyer, I did a bunch of other weird experiments incorporating art into bulletin board advertising like that, but now signing my name to it. I got good feedback, and approval. Advertising keg parties and things like that! I think doing this type of thing just encouraged me to shoot for bigger and better, ya know, real world exposure. I guess getting contracted to do work in THE SOURCE at the beginning of my senior year was just the next step in the progression. I had spread my name in my college level, now to spread it to the masses."
What was your first paying job as an artist?
Cojo: " Back in my Marvel Comic days, before I was a colorist, I was an intern. I interned there for three terms in High School. Junior year, then over the summer, then senior year. I was 16 the summer I worked at Marvel, I lived with a relative who had an apartment on Nassau Street, and worked weekdays in the Direct Sales department. The department had a trade magazine that went out to distributors with the figures and earnings of comic books Marvel produced, it was called "Sales to Astonish." The title was a spoof of a comic book line called "Tales to Astonish" that was around in the 50's or 60's. Anyway, my boss was going to write a section for the magazine and everyone who wrote a section had a caricature of themselves heading up their article. She needed one, and there were no artists around to do one up for her that day. I jumped at the chance and penciled one out of her. I got paid like 20 bucks for it. It came out pretty nice, looked nothing like her of course, but the chick I drew was pretty hot. I do remember the glasses I drew looked like her glasses."
Like writers get writer's block, do you at times receive a creator's block for any artistic concepts?
Cojo: "Sometimes I will write something for a magazine, it will get approved and then I realize, 'Damn, this is going to be a tough one to draw.' But it usually just turns out being a fun challenge. Like the most recent issue of Maxim that just came out. I wrote and drew a comic strip called 'A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOHNNY KNOXVILLE.' In this strip, I wrote Johnny into positions we have never seen him in, so it was hard to come up with ways to draw him in these situations and still make it look like it's him doing it. Like getting kicked in the nuts by a horse, or taking a bath in a tub full of razor blades.
If I'm in a really bad creative stymie, I will just take a shower. Get that water hitting you and zone into it. I read somewhere that these certain monks meditate under waterfalls, helps clear their minds or something. I think showers are the next best thing.
Luckily the creative rut doesn't happen to me that often. I'm more stuck with too many concepts to do and not enough free time to do them. I jot ideas down in my notebooks, and I have stacks of these 'random thought notebooks' waiting for me. This way I have projects lined up to be done. If I ever am at a lack of things to do, I consult the notebooks and refresh my memory, and my inspiration. "
How did you acquire the Fat Albert and Fubu project?
Cojo: " My third year of College I moved out of the dorm to a nice brownstone in Park Slope Brooklyn. I was sharing the apartment with an SVA grad named Vern Incognito, who had lived on my floor in the shitty dorm the G. W. (George Washington Dorm on 23rd Street and Lexington) when I was a freshman. After graduation he got a job at an advertising agency, and got this apartment with his cousin. His cousin moved to Cali, and I was living with this German Piano player and his model girlfriend on 34th street. I got sick of that and moved in with Vern when his cousin took off.
While I lived in Park Slope I was crazy productive, mostly coloring comic books and drawing my ass off. I worked on sketches for a few projects he did with the agency but nothing really came of it. My senior year I moved back to the G. DUB, and my friend and fellow artist Kevin "Chesbo" Fagan moved in with Vern in Brooklyn, but Vern and I still kept in touch. When Vern left the Ad agency he got hooked up with an art director gig at FUBU. Vern called me after I got a phone hooked up in my crap ass dorm room and asked if I wanted to show my book to the other art directors at FUBU because he had a project I should get in on. They were coming out with a new line of clothing based on the ABA (American Basketball Association) which they were in the process of getting the clothing rights to. Vern wanted me to work up some sketches, black and white, with dudes in basketball clothes, afros, tank tops, short shorts, 70's style. I drew a shit load of them and was going to get $500 a piece for line drawings, that's pretty damn good for black and white. Well, the project fell through when their rights got bumped till sometime after the millennium, so my project was scrapped. I took the line drawings, inked and colored them, and used them as samples. I sent a set of samples to THE SOURCE, they liked what they saw, and I blew up from there.You might know Vern now as one of the head art directors at MECCA USA.
Last year I called Vern and asked him about the guys at FUBU. He hooked me up with Bobby Joseph, art director over at FUBU who remembered me from back in the day, and hooked me up with Fat Albert work. Art school kids, it's not just about learning to draw, your friends will hook you up one day. The industry is small, it's one hand washes the other. You do a favor for someone, and who knows, a few years down the road, they will do a favor for you. You never burn a bridge in this industry.
Did you watch Fat Albert back in the days or were you too young to remember?
Cojo: "Man, I'm 25, when was that show originally aired? I saw reruns. I loved that show. The junkyard gang ruled. I especially loved it because when I was watching it, I was like 7, and living in Jersey on this big property. We were poor as hell, my parents are Hippy artists so we grew up on the poor side of Montclair in this little rent controlled house on a huge property. Most of it was woods, but half of it was a junkyard that was rented by this scrap metal dude Mr. Brandon. He worked on the property, always melting shit with his torch. That junk yard ruled, cause it was the most kickass place for a kid to grow up. My brother and I could really take a shot at building any of the shit the junkyard gang would make, cause we had the real material."
So I guess THE SOURCE was your first step into nationwide recognition, tell me about getting that gig.
Cojo: "I started my freelance career as any student trying to get work in a magazine would, sending out postcards I had printed on my computer to the magazines I liked. That's how I got my first real break, a big luck shot. An assistant art director at THE SOURCE got one of my samples, and totally dug it. He called me up all excited and wanted to see my book. I was pretty ecstatic because THE SOURCE is the biggest Hip Hop magazine out there, and this guy was like, really psyched on the phone. I was in school at the time, living in the cockroach infested shithole dorm. I got my portfolio together and walked down to their building. When I got in to their offices I was introduced around, and brought back to the art department. The assistant art director who called me, brought me back to his cubicle.
Now, in every editorial designer or art director's office, there is a wall, jam packed with a mass of illustrator's samples, postcards, and tearsheets, all tacked up for easy access. Making it on an art directors wall pretty much assures that they like you, and will "use you" in their magazine. The key to getting work from an art director, is getting on "THE WALL." It's all their favorite work, ya know, artists they will call when they need to assign an illustration job. I started thinking, man it would be cool to be on that wall. Some of my favorite artists were up there. Being a visual person, the first thing I did was scan the wall, seeing all the familiar styles I see in the magazine, and, but wait a second...I recognize’Ķ HOLY SHIT! The sample I sent is hanging there, DEAD CENTER! My FUBU sample!
I, a student, standing there on my first portfolio review by a professional, had a piece ON THE WALL! From that moment on in our meeting, I was cool as hell, I already knew they dug me, I was all confident, the only thing running through my mind was "oh shit, I made it, I'm in, I'm in ." They gave me an assignment that day, in the health bites section, and I continued to do the artwork in that section every month for the next two years solid.
Is a career in art lucrative and long lived?
Cojo: "Lucrative? I'll be honest, for the sake of new artists coming up. It's really a crapshoot if it will be lucrative, it depends on a lot of things. You as an artist, the market, your drive, your determination, your creativity, your persistence, your connections, and your appeal. Personally, I'm one of the lucky ones, and am doing pretty well with it. I'm going to be making art in one form or another until I die, that's just how this works. Art is a career and a lifestyle, and if you choose to live that lifestyle, you are totally entrenched in it. If I tried to deny my creativity and work a normal job, I'll feel mentally stifled. But it's hard. The market is pretty bad for most people right now. I'm just one of the few who's staying afloat in the choppy waters. I know a lot of really talented artists who are waiting tables."
What should an unknown artist with great skills do to get exposure for his creations?
Cojo: "Well, hum, let's see. I'd say, go to art school and make as many friends as you can. Meet as many people as you can. Make friends with your professors, talk to them, they are there to show you the way. Show your portfolio to as many people as humanly possible, make copies of it, so you can show more people at once. Be unique. Be persistent. Don't give up when you get rejected, it comes with the job. Remember that you will get rejected, over and over. Oh, and over and over and over. Come at the world from your own angle. Approach the people you want to meet in a way they have never seen before. Be confident, but not too cocky. Show only your best work.
AND FINALLY: Make it your ultimate goal to make some shit so ill, people will remember it till they are on their death bed, and when their life is passing before their eyes, your shit will pop up as their final image and their mind will pause on it for a sweet second before they fade away, and as a final thought with their dying breath they will mumble quietly to their close friends and family standing by their bed side: "That piece by YOUR NAME HERE was dope." ... then they will die, and instead of crying, their family members and friends will only nod their heads in agreement with their newly deceased relative, because they know the piece was indeed dope, because they saw it too."
So, what's the next big project for Cojo?
Cojo: "I've always got a lot of shits in the works. My next, big-BIG thing is this new fine art show I'm working on. I'm doing a new series right now, It's going to be my best showing to date. Crazy how much work is going into each one of these paintings, but it's worth it, cause this show is going to be the bomb. I'll keep you posted on that, Billie, I'll send mail you an invite. It's going to be a press field day, could take a few months to get done, so don't hold your breath. People can always check out my work on the web www.COJOart.com. And if you want to keep up on my shiznet, I have an e-mail update I send out about every other week to keep the addicts in tune with the daily grind, all the celeb encounters, and business hobnobbing that goes along with being an art juggernaut. STAY TUNED..."
Just another day in the life of an Art Juggernaut.
-Cojo