Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Roland.
Jeff, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was born in France in 1969 and realized very early that drawing was the coolest thing to do. At the time I wanted to become a comics artist and then getting older I started using all sorts of media.
While then back in France nobody seemed to care about my weird characters and bold magic universes I decided to travel to Italy then Norway, The UK, the Netherlands where collectors started to like my work. Critics sometimes put me in the outsider artists category sometimes contemporary but I prefer what one of them used … calling me an ‘inspired dissident’. My works have toured the world and ironically eventually got appreciated in France too.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I try to let people free to interpret the paintings. However, I like to encourage the viewer to wake the part of magic that might have been put to sleep by modern life. There is a strength in this very simple naive appreciation of color and primitive shapes and characters.
My process changes over time as I encounter new materials that intuitively fit into my work. I do workshops regularly because I realized with surprise that many people just need a push to express their creativity with very basic means. All it takes is practice and pleasure.
What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
I am sensitive to the evils of the world but I do reckon that a true honest optimism is necessary. Detachment of some sort is also good to be able to think outside the box and actually achieve something that resonates with who you are – and pretty well know if you are sincere – instead of pleasing the trends or crying on command.
Art is one of the most important pieces of the human puzzle… it is the magic link to our best selves. Only … under the pretext that artists are not always taking things seriously they are not always listened to. Strangely people admire artists that repeat the same message of fear and anxiety. Art is subtle and joyful… I am not a big advocate of too much darkness. As Martin Luther King said… Darkness doesn’t remove darkness only Light does that. This is not the exact quote but you get the idea.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
My work travels a lot. I was just in Festival Hors les Normes in Praz sur Arly in France showing works and leading workshops and I will be showing in Megeve, France next. Some works are part of the collection of the Museum of Everything in London, the Museum of Drawing in Skopje, Macedonia and others. Some works are on display at the moment in Amsterdam in the old Outsider Art Gallery part of the Hermitage Museum. But nowadays most happens online on social networks like Facebook and especially Instagram where over 22k people follow my work and can easily contact me.
The galleries that represented me closed one after the other…not an easy business these days. And for now, I haven’t found another gallery to represent my work in a way that I trust and respect enough not to handle things myself.
Supporting a living artist is easy. For people who can afford to buy art – and I do understand that it doesn’t fit everybody’s budget- simply contact me on Instagram and buy a work.
Contact Info:
- Address: Jeff Roland 5 Rue du Montant 54460 Liverdun France
- Website: www.jeffroland.org
- Email: magicaljeffroland@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/magicaljeffroland
- Facebook: facebook.com/magicaljeffroland
Image Credit:
Jeff Roland
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