Our next feature is from an award winning visual artist, who’s work has been featured nationally and internationally!  Take a second to view our one-on-one conversation with James Lincke.

STAMP: Introduce yourself.  What is something u want the world to know about you?
James: My name is James Lincke and I’m an award-winning visual artist whose illustrations have been honored and showcased nationally and internationally through competitions and galleries.  My works have been on display from Pennsylvania to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., to New York City, Florida, and as far away as Paris France.  I’ve always been passionate about image-making.  As a young boy, it was the adventure stories of my favorite super-heroes that first inspired an interest and motivation to put a pencil to page.  It was also a way for me to bring my heroes to life on my own terms and to craft for them worlds of endless imagination.  Since graduating with a BFA in Illustration from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, I’ve continued to draw and paint laboriously, honing my skills as a designer and illustrator.  I consider myself a storyteller, and my works have always come from my passion to craft a narrative visually.  Whether I’m conjuring up fantasy settings, drafting characters, or paneled comic strips, my enthusiasm seems to derive from a love for art as communication.

Not only is art an exciting, adventurous way of spending my time, it’s possibly more so a powerful means of therapeutic self investigation and expression.  Without art in my life, I would certainly be a drastically different individual and I honestly can not imagine just who or what sort of young man I would be if I had not continued to follow through with drawing and painting throughout the years.  Even my comic strip/cartoon project GUARDS is ultimately a creative answer to my own ten year history of experience as a lifeguard in my hometown of Ridley Park, Pennsylvania.  I guess that as more time passes and the more work I produce whether it be personal or professional, I find that I’m always drawing from within and around me.  My works are reactionary to the world and my involvement in it and from the early stages of conception autobiographical.

Somedays I wonder if and when art may not serve such a dominant role in my daily life.  I can’t imagine not sketching, painting, writing and conceptualizing as much as I do now.  Perhaps it so much a part of who I am to this point that to discontinue the mission would be like undoing all that I am. I’d transform and cease to be.  I guess that what I’m trying to get around to say is that I’d like for others to know and understand that I am my artwork through and through.  Even the grimly envisioned imagery speaks of my fears and nightmares.  It’s my own language as I presume each artists works are intended to be just that at the end of it all.  It’ not only a hobby I’ve decided to attempt at making some money from.  Its a way of life and my way of looking into it.

STAMP: What is your medium of choice and why?
James: I’ve always worked traditionally and mainly because I enjoy getting my hands dirty.  I appreciate the tangible quality of utilizing a physical medium such as pastel or oil paint and applying it to a surface.  I’ve only recently opened up to creating art digitally.  The computer comes in for me as the final additive of the process in some cases to touch up, manipulate, and or add text to an illustration.

I’m one of those strange birds who doesn’t necessarily have one particular medium of choice, however when looking back at my body of work I can gather that I must enjoy working with graphite and pastel quite a bit!  Dry, chalky, smear-able drawing materials seem to do it for me.  More and more I find myself experimenting in mixed media projects, creating an under-drawing in pastel then sealing it with fixative to paint over in oil then resealing and going in with colored pencils and ink.  Each piece deserves its own wildly spontaneous yet specific series of substances I suppose.  It’s fun not knowing the exact rout to the destination when beginning a new work.

I have on the other hand conceived certain methods of production for say the comic strips I create.  With images of that kind that are made to be a part of an ongoing series with a distinct look and feel, I find that it’s important to stamp out a procedure.

STAMP: Did you study art at an art school?  If so which one and in what way did that experience help you as an artist?  If not, do you wish you did?
James: I graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia with a BFA in Illustration in the spring of 2008.  I really enjoyed my time there and find myself missing the school experience very much.  I look back and wish that I would have gotten more involved in the broad range of things the school had to offer though.  It’s not that I wasn’t outgoing.  On the contrary, I was always involved intensively in my classes, my works and I’m grateful and proud of my determination and work ethic throughout the four years, but of course one can tend to miss out on the big picture when there’s one particular thing absorbing all of the attention.

I think that art school can be a powerful experience for individuals hoping to immerse themselves in the diversity of a crowded creative world.  I’ve thought about Masters School, but I think the best thing for me to do right now during this post college period is to keep making art and to continue everyday to bring it to folks.  I feel as if I am still in school anyhow, learning more and more day by day from struggling as a newbie in the work force and from being free to create what and when I please.  After being so incredibly regimented for so many years through focused study I feel I should of course ease up and branch out for a time before focusing in again.

STAMP: When did you become interested in art?
James: Superman was honestly the first visual to inspire me to draw.  My parents must have boxes of Superman drawings in their house that I worked not stop on between the ages of 2 and 10!  I still draw Superman from time to time.  He’s a colorful larger than life persona so I guess I was wired at a young age to go about illustrating in a larger than life manner.

STAMP: When a clients approaches you for a project, what factors, enter into your decision to take it (besides money)?
James: I must be very interested and compelled to take on a proposed project especially considering I’m chin deep currently in developing my own personal works.  Following college graduation, I sent out dozens and dozens of e-mail inquiries and proposals to various art directors and editors for magazines, publishers, and record labels.  Maybe e-mail-artwork submissions art not the best way to go considering you never know if your submission ended up deleted through junk mail but for whatever reason I didn’t receive many replies.  I decided after that mass e-mail attack to take a deep breath and hold back and develop my own projects for however long it’d take to complete. Several months after graduating from school I accepted a full-time job at a well known big-time Garment Printing Company in PA just outside Philadelphia.  I’ve been a graphic designer and creative production artist there for almost two years.  It’s been great in that I’ve accumulated a range of experience in the design field and commercial art world.  It’s also allowed for me to not have to worry so much about sending my work out to score freelance gigs.  And so I’ve been fortunate to have been able for the past two years to focus my nights and weekends on enhancing my portfolio, developing my comic strip and whatever other artistic projects I felt passionate enough to pursue.  I’m very happy to have been thrust into that opportunity.  I feel that the ball is just starting to get rolling so there begins my advice to young aspiring artists..

STAMP: As an artist, what are the most common setbacks that you’ve faced? (personally, w/medium, w/craft etc)?
James: I’m not totally confident to say right now that I’ve successfully transitioned from happy art making, deans list student to satisfied creative professional.  I’m practically just out of school and still struggling to get my work in front of folks and to achieve the creative job opportunities I’d prefer.  My styles and interests are still growing and developing as I imagine they always will, so I find myself holding back to a degree in sending work out to art directors.  I love what I’m doing creatively day after day, but I can’t say that I’m very much comfortable yet with my career.  It’s a game though and any young artist will surely agree that things take time and determination and passion is key.  I hope to always draw from that passion when pursuing creative opportunities in the professional world.

Also, I’ve taken most of my time since graduation from art school to develop my comic strip/cartoon project, GUARDS.  It’s something I care a lot about and up to now it’s been shaping and reshaping so it’s sort of put my illustration career into slow motion as it’s been a focus of mine for a couple years.  Hopefully as the project picks up speed, everything else will too!

STAMP: Have you ever felt limited or trapped by your style?  With so, much pressure on mainstream art, have you felt peer pressured into conforming?
James: The only pressure I’ve felt in the past years is to stick with the style I’ve been hailed as strong in.  I created nothing but highly rendered pencil drawings my sophomore year and once I started to loosen up and experiment a bit many of my peers and family members vocalized their disinterest in the shift.  So, I think I’ve held back a bit until now mainly because of feeling trapped in a comfort zone.  But, I still do love rendering with pencils!

STAMP: Are there any current projects you want to discuss?
James: Years ago, my lifelong passion for creative art and story telling carried over to my secondary summer career as a lifeguard and pool manager.  Hence GUARDS was born – a collection of zany happenings based on my personal experiences and interactions with a host of entertaining characters at pool side!  Every day as a guard was an opportunity, to collect as many pieces of inspiration I could find, which most of the time naturally, translating to hundreds of conceptual sketches, fully developed characters, engaging story-lines and hilarious strips! The main lifeguard character and hero of the franchise is based visually off of my younger brother and the character is an amalgam of his and my personalities.  My aspiration is to continue to broaden the potential of GUARDS, and one day, share my incredible stories of fun in the sun with the world!

My good friend and creative partner, Russ Cera, and myself are in collaboration on the production of a series of GUARDS comic strips along with conceptualizing and producing an original productions website to act as a home-base to springboard and share our projects and galleries with prospective viewers and readers in the entertainment industry.  We welcome all those interested in our work of course.  The website is www.rjacreations.com

TWISTED EARTH, a sprawling, fantasy epic of personal tragedy and triumph is currently the featured project and the site houses dozens of concept creatures, environments, story-line progressions, interviews and featurettes all available for public viewing.  The site is a work in progress, but we are confident in its present form enough to point folks in its direction.

STAMP: Any interesting stories?
James: I’m always excited to share a particular inspirational personal story from when I was 14.  I entered and won first prize in a cartoonist competition sponsored by “Cartooning with Blitz,” a popular Emmy-nominated kids show that ran during the 90s.  I was flown down to Florida where I was featured in several episodes, in which I interacted alongside the star, Bruce Blitz.  He told me numerous times while in his company to “Keep on Cartooning,” and so I continue with that experience as inspiration.

STAMP: Influences?
James: I consider myself very lucky to have been instructed by a string of amazingly artistic men and women throughout my college career.  Many of whom are quite influential in the illustration world and I’m still in frequent communication with them and find their friendships always inspiring.

STAMP: Have you ever shown in galleries? If so, what was the experience like? If not, how come?
James: I would like to get more involved in showing my works at galleries.  I show occasionally in Philadelphia at different clubs, cafes and galleries.  I love going to shows and seeing original artworks and to mingle with illustrators, sculpture and painters.  Showing work in galleries as any artist knows though can be an expensive and frustrating avenue.  I tend to work pretty large-scale in my paintings so it usually costs me a pretty penny to frame and matte my works.

STAMP: What role do you feel the internet has on art? Positive or negative?
James: The internet can be an amazing tool for an artist, but it’s overwhelmed me as of late.  There’s so many opportunities to get your work out there and to make a connection with another professional that I’m often feeling like a deer caught in headlights.  I never feel like I’m doing enough to enhance my career.  One could literally just spend days browsing the web for creative opportunities and shows and contacts.  It really is great though, sometimes it’s just scary to see just how many people are out there in the creative world.

STAMP: Are there any clients you wish to work with, that you haven’t already?
James: I aspire to break into the entertainment industry one day and to work along side other conceptual illustrators for film and television productions.  I’d love to go from big project to big project and to travel from location to location.  I’d love to pick Tim Burtons brain and share sketchbooks with one another.  I write probably as much as I sketch and paint so I hope to someday write and illustrate my own graphic novels and short stories.  So, Craig Thompson is surely someone who’s influenced me immeasurably.  I’d love to when the time is right to send him some of my story thumbnails and notes.

STAMP: What can we expect in the future from you?
James: One way or another I will see my current projects through.  GUARDS is of course my baby and I’d say that I won’t stop until I’ve told all the stories I have to tell.  I’m going to continue to write and illustrate from the heart and to never stop looking into the world around me.  It’s all a journey and the purpose of art is to communicate ones findings with one another.

STAMP: What advice would you give a young artist just starting or trying to get started?

And one must always be outgoing enough to self educate even beyond the college machine.  You don’t necessarily have to subscribe to a dozen illustration annuals, but keep up on the news of the industry you’re operating within.  Get in touch with other artists, call them, e-mail them.  Introduce ourself and try to make your best effort at staying on top of your contacts and peer/professional relationships.  I personally struggle with that still.  If I don’t make it a point for myself to e-mail back a friend or colleague right away then weeks will go by before it happens.  That’s not good! Truly though, the best advice I can give is to do what you love and do not wait to go for it.  Life’s too short and unpredictable to be floundering about in a bubble being afraid to attempt at bringing your dreams to life.

STAMP: Do you agree with the overall objective of STAMP Magazine?  Why or Why Not?
James: I appreciate greatly anyone out there so willing and excited to bring artists together and to contribute to the sharing and promotion of art.  Never stop and we the imagineers will not either!

To see more of James visit him at: http://jameslincke.com; rjacreations.com; http://www.directoryofillustration.com/ArtistPortfolioThumbs.aspx?AID=4157