Jamie Paul Scanlon was born in 1977 in Weston-Super- Mare, a seaside town not far from Bristol, UK.
His creativity was evident at an early age. His father spent a lot of time in prison and died when Jamie was 18 and he impressed teachers in school with his drawings. He went to college to study graphic design. Sadly, the government stopped support, so Jamie wasn’t able to afford college any longer and had to leave. He was a shoe repairer and a key cutter.
At that point, everything went downhill for him. After two of his friends were murdered within 6 months of each other, he began using light drugs which led to a crack-cocaine addiction and heavy drinking. George took him to an exhibition of stencil art in Bristol when he hit rock bottom.
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Jamie realized he had thrown his life away and started cutting stencil with a rusty blade, magazine cover, and a stolen can of spray paint.
He hit rock bottom when he was homeless and sleeping on the roof of an abandoned hotel.
He was debating if he should jump and join his friends, but he decided to do the hardest thing and wanted to prove that he could make it in the art game even though he grew up in a poor estate.
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He turned his life around by attending counseling and group meetings.
Pursuing art with time, not only his equipment but also his skills improved, he evolved his own style and technique.
JPS has a unique style, ranging from pop culture and realistic horror movie characters over funny wordplay and perfect placement to massive dinosaurs and tiny micro stencils. His artwork can be found in countries all over the world, such as Norway, Spain, the United States of America, and Germany.
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“If I’m honest, my mental health hasn’t been good the past couple of months, corona laws in Bavaria have been very strict throughout the pandemic and are still now, combined with winter weather making it difficult to paint and the isolation of living so far in the countryside, I just struggle on through in hopes of better days ahead.”
“I view my works in different sections: there’s the horror stuff, which is all about placement and terrorizing people, there’s the object intervention stuff inspired by street items or fittings and there’s the micro stuff and puns, I enjoy bouncing between these and rarely do political stuff, I think my street art should inspire others and make people smile. Most political works have a very short lifespan; they may get you a brief amount of attention but you find they are useless to share a year later.”
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“The ‘insert coin to continue’ phrase on my Instagram profile relates to the war against the collective of artists that form the brand known as Banksy, it’s all one big fraud and they blackball anyone they see as a threat, which unfortunately I’m one of. Their media control is astonishing and if anyone’s interested in why I think it’s a fraud, Google JPS burst balloon on Banksy, to this day I’m still not proven wrong. But I lost this battle and felt it’s kind of game over for my career. My outlook on art and life is art saved me from addiction and I find no greater happiness in painting works that the world enjoys.”
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“The ‘insert coin to continue’ phrase on my Instagram profile relates to the war against the collective of artists that form the brand known as Banksy, it’s all one big fraud and they blackball anyone they see as a threat, which unfortunately I’m one of. Their media control is astonishing and if anyone’s interested in why I think it’s a fraud, Google JPS burst balloon on Banksy, to this day I’m still not proven wrong. But I lost this battle and felt it’s kind of game over for my career. My outlook on art and life is art saved me from addiction and I find no greater happiness in painting works that the world enjoys.”
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“I’ve lost so many friends through drugs, suicide, and a few other causes that I struggle to list them all, I guess you become numb to it over time and I try not to think back at things too much, I have paid tribute to a few via my work and have a few others I want to pay tribute to in this way, I think growing up on a rough estate we were labeled from birth and it’s like that was meant to be our fates, I’m hoping to prove that wrong one day and get some of their stories told.”
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“My advice to anyone starting out starts simple and also paint things that you want to and can relate to personally, the stuff the media proclaims is cool will only be used to promote a certain brand. It’s stale in my eyes. The breaking the law part is always nerve-wracking, I just had nothing to lose when I started out.”
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