Tilteed

Artist Interview: MJ

Hello there, MJ. Please tell the Tilteed world a little bit about you.

I’m a huge fan of t-shirts. When I’m not designing then or writing about them, I’m usually playing video games and plotting world domination.

Your art style is wonderfully unique, but sadly most of our users are probably more familiar with your blog work. Tell us a little about your ever-expanding blogroll.

The main way I learn about new things is to delve as deep as I can and start writing about them. So I started Compete-tee-tion when I discovered shirt contests, and used it as a way to find out about new contests and trends in the medium.

Later, when I started working with TeeFury I realized that I needed a quicker way to keep tabs on what all the other shirt-a-day sites were doing, so I came up with the idea of making all the art for sale viewable at a glance- and thus TeeMagnet was born (with coding provided by the incredible bluchez of TeeTrade).

More recently, I realized that all these contests and shirt-a-day sites have led to an incredible amount of amazing art that has either not printed or is currently out of print- a problem that DTG sites are the perfect solution for. Since I didn’t know much about how those sites worked, I created PointClickApparel.info to collect all the information I’ve been finding out. Hopefully the site will help people to get their artwork out there and start making some extra cash!

On to the art: what is your process, and what would you say inspires you most?

I like roughness, looseness, and a doodle-y vibe for the most part. To me, the most fun artwork is the kind where you can see the hand of its creator, forging a connection between the artist and viewer. A lot of how I create is driven by that- I like it to feel handmade, so the bulk of the work is pen on paper with minimal correction on the computer.

What’s the deal with you and platypuses?

I consider platypi to be nature’s mutants. They’re strange little creatures, and more ridiculous than most mythical creatures. Since I’m a bit of an oddball myself, I guess I can relate!

A lion and a narwhal are fighting. Who wins?

This is a tough question. On land, the lion would have the advantage. But in the water, the narwhal would win. So the only place to have a fair fight is in the vacuum of space, where both animals would be torn atom from atom at approximately the same time. I guess it’s a tie?

You’ve been in the shirt world for a relative long time. Enlighten us to a shirt or two we absolutely must know about.

One of my favorite shirt stops is Owl Movement- they have an amazing catalog that veers from the cute to the experimental, and it’s all pretty damn wearable. I’m especially fond of This is the Happy House by C86. It looks amazing on orchid, and makes me smile every time I wear it.

Another great t-shirt tip is to ALWAYS remember to check the artist’s site if you see a shirt you like in a store. Andy G is an amazing Threadless artist, but I wonder how many fans of his work there even realize he has a great shop of his own, including the tee Peace Pipe (which has been sitting on my wish list for way too long).

Any final thoughts, links, or commentary you’d like to leave us with?

If you have an idea, make it happen. Even the most difficult projects come together pretty quickly once you start planning and putting the work in. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best there ever was or the worst- doing will make you much better than intending ever could have.