Jared‘s take on:
The art of influence.
Jared’s love of art goes back to childhood, when he would see fanciful people and places on TV or in books and try to emulate them himself on paper. He cites a number of comic books and graphic novels, as well as fantasy artwork, as influences, and that otherworldly imagination is reflected in the character designs that appear in his DH work.
It wasn’t until college, however, that he started studying graphic design and realized he could apply his love of illustration to all sorts of mediums.
“I don’t know where it comes from: having the eye for arranging things in a certain way,” Jared says. “I realized I could take skills that I was learning and put it into other mediums, adding elements of graphic design into illustration, and vice versa.”
Jared’s take on authenticity in design:
I think that we’re moving away from the human and artistic and more towards art that was designed by a robot. I love when you can look at a logo or a poster and think, ‘I can tell a person made that, and how did they do that?’ — something that looks like it took some effort and blood, sweat and tears. It’s cool to see design and make it a challenge to learn how to do that.
The world’s a stage.
Alongside his love of art, Jared also started taking acting classes when he was a kid and participated in several children’s theater productions, and a theater class in college rekindled a love for the footlights. If you’re a Spokane theater regular, you may have seen Jared perform in everything from Chekov to Avenue Q.
As an actor, Jared tries to capture the same sense of emotional truth as he does in his visual art. He likens live performance to capturing lightning in a bottle: What’s happening now is never going to happen again, so enjoy it while you’re doing it.
“You learn a lot about yourself in trying to create something both for yourself and for other people to be transported by,” Jared says. “You really can change the world and change people’s minds with stories.”
Education
Bachelor of arts in visual communication and theatre, Eastern Washington University