Featured Local Artist: Jules Buck Jones

Austin artist Jules Buck Jones mixes his media in East Austin and is a member of Boozefox, one of our favorite local art collectives.

Check out his work here.

 The natural world is a big part of your art - when and how did nature & art come together for you?

As a kid I drew a lot of monsters. Hybrid animals. I watched a lot of Godzilla and Voltron. A lot of this got pushed aside in my formative years, as I concentrated making images of other things. When I started grad school in 2005, I had a new interest in depicting animals and new ideas of what I could do with that.

I know mixed media is kind of your thing. What's your favorite medium/material at the moment?

I’ve been predominately making large scale drawings for the past several years now. The drawings used everything from graphite to acrylic. Lately I feel I have beat that over the head. Recently I have been playing with more sculptural, video and audio pieces. Something about making a million collages sounds really appealing to me right now.

"Felidae" by Jules Buck Jones

How did you end up in Austin? Why did you stay?

I moved here for graduate school in 2005 from Virginia. While I was in grad school I got some gallery representation around Texas and received some opportunities to show and work with local art institutions.  I got a small studio in a really awesome complex in East Austin called Monofonus where I work today.  Texas has been treating me right, and I feel if it ain't broke, why fix it?

What does the future hold for you and your art?

Oh, well, like I said I have been trying to branch out and work with an expanded toolbox of media. This is exciting for me as it presents all types of new avenues for the work to go down.  Where this will take me, who knows, but I am having a blast and I feel great knowing I am growing and learning new things as an artist.

"Canidae" by Jules Buck Jones

Tell us about your spirit animals.

I have 2. The hawk and the fox are my spirit animals. They serve different purposes. The hawk I see a lot and tells me of day to day things like love and work and friends. The fox I see less often and has bigger stories for me. More internal things about myself as well as external macro ideas of the cosmos and such. My hawk has been following a mountain lion lately. They can form a hybrid beast similar to a griffin. Seems pretty unstoppable.

Check back soon for another installment of Featured Local Artist