ARTIST PROFILE: J. BANNON

J. Bannon was born in 1976. He grew up splitting his time between the Merrimack Valley, Charlestown, and East Boston. At 18 he relocated to metro Boston and attended college at the Art Institute of Boston where he earned his Bachelors In Fine Arts in 1998. At that time he also won the "Excellence In Design" for 1998 accolade from the school. He later instructed at the same college for a brief time in their "Continuing Education" program. After working a variety of freelance design jobs at firms around Boston, Jake decided to step out on his own as a freelance Artist/Designer. Since then, he has primarily created visual work for the Independent Music Community. He has done artwork for a long list of bands including: Integrity, American Nightmare, and Converge.
Today he spends most of his time writing/performing music with Converge and other projects, running his record label, Deathwish, and creating fine art.
"Horror Business" will be the second group show that J. Bannon has appeared in at Tradition. He is one of my favorite artists, and we are definitely privileged to show his work!


"I make a majority of my work by hand. Ie: I do not use Photoshop brushes/effects in my work. I'm not that technologically advanced to do such a thing. My use of a computer is extremely basic in that regard. It's a great tool to clean up images, but I don't see it as a creative tool by itself. Many commercial projects I work on require a great deal of versatility/flexibility in their uses and sizing. Because of this, I tend to construct pieces physically in layers, and will scan those elements for later use. Photography also plays a major part in what I create."
"Learn to be poor yet dedicated, forever. Step away from the computer every chance you can and learn how to be flexible as an artist/designer. Learn art history, color theory, grid systems, typography, photography, and illustration. Work with other artists/designers around you. We all learn from one another. Education is everything, but the institution isn't. School is great, but retaining information is better. With that said, Art School is great for some and a waiting room for others. It's certainly not a requirement to be an artist. Once you have a knowledge base, the world is yours."