Painter Jon Duff remembers vividly the first time he realized he wanted to pursue art. “My mom took me to a Pop art exhibition at the Milwaukee Museum of Art when I was about 8 years old,” he recalled in an interview with Young Space, admitting he was “blown away.” “I found it all so ridiculous and fun, and I remember thinking ‘These guys get to spend their time making all these weird things and people appreciate them for it. I have weird ideas all the time. I want to do that!'”
He stuck to this idea through and through. Having received his MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2012, and his BFA from the University of Minnesota in 2008, Duff has exhibited his work throughout the US and has been featured in publications in both the US and the UK.
Based in Brooklyn, his paintings are a colorful mixture of shapes, textures, and patterns – making for an overall messy effect that is hard to decipher. “My art practice is very solitary,” he says. “I like it that way, and I feel like it is a requirement for some of the weirder things I make. Having a community of other artists to empathize with and talk about the mundane things like crappy studios and loneliness can be more helpful than discussing things like concept and success. Knowing others are having the same experience can be supportive. It feels good to know I am a part of a big group of weirdos on a goofy endless mission to make art.”
But though he has dreamed for a long time of becoming an artist, he admits that the “celebrity worship in the art world” bums him out. “I didn’t become an artist because I want to party with the Olsen Twins someday.” he jokes.
Follow his Instagram page for a blast of color:
