approach my creative process. My style slowly evolves, but the message is the same: be playful and carefree! Many people know you for your amazing custom toy designs. Do you remember the first time you customized a designer toy?
“Misty Morning,” 2015
While most might classify his flowing lines and beautiful backgrounds as being part of the pop surrealism movement, Chicago-based artist Jeremiah Ketner prefers his own coined term of “small and round” to describe his masterful painting on both two- and three-dimensional canvases. Embodying “the Japanese aesthetics I discovered on my travels,” Ketner freely admits that he “subconsciously practice[s] those design principles on a daily basis.” His amazing body of work can be seen not only on production toy pieces but also in a multitude of galleries around the world… a world that is both small and round! You have been creating original paintings for many years. Would you tell us a bit about your early work? And talking about how your style has evolved over time? I got my start painting at an early age, my father having introduced me to a private instructor he had as a kid. I fell in love with oils when I was in middle school, and starting off painting in oils taught me how to technically work with mixing colors and to explore a wide range of traditional techniques. I was more concerned about the technical aspects of painting rather than the subject. Later on I attended art school at the Columbus Collage of Art & Design (CCAD), where I was introduced to a world of vast mediums, disciplines, and concepts. More importantly through my experience I learned how to develop a cohesive body of work and how to present a message through my
visual art. I would say that I had no particular style at art school. For me, it was a time for experimentation at CCAD which continued as I went on to earn my Masters at Southern Illinois University. My style started to develop after my move to Chicago. I was deeply moved by Superflat, a postmodern art movement founded by Takashi Murakami back in 1999. I attended a few of his shows and realized there was a place for the style of work I had already begun to explore. Yoshitomo Nara exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and filled the space with playful and somewhat childish drawings taped unsystematically to the wall. I loved this raw visual presentation, the message was playful—almost shallow, but engaging. At that time and until the present day, I felt a great change in the way I would
I was introduced to the world of custom toy design by my friend Nakanari, for a custom group show at Rotofugi in 2007. I painted a B.B.Birdy toy from the Funny Club series and, at first, I was not sure how to go about painting on it. The whole idea was foreign to me. I really enjoyed working on a 3D surface and, from that point, I became hooked on making custom toys. I like the idea of transforming a pre-existing sculpt and embellishing it with my own designs. Over the years, you have work on many toy platforms. Do you have a favorite? Also, are there any platforms you haven’t worked on that you would like to? I have been planning for a very long time now on making my own platforms to paint on. There are only a few platform toys out there that I like working on and sometimes I get asked by collectors to paint on figures that I would not consider as a platform. These can be the most challenging figures to transform and make in my own style. I respect the artist’s original sculpt and try not to change or modify the sculpt, only to transform the piece with paint. I would have to say my favorite platform toy would be the Unicorno by Tokidoki though I also had fun working on Martin Hsu’s Dragon Boy. What was it like to have a production design featured in the 2012 Dunny series? Is there any chance we might see more production toys from you in the future? It was a great experience and I would defiantly do it again. My custom designs are complex, so I had to simplify my design to work with the 2012 Dunny. Given the opportunity, I would love to create new production pieces. Often times we see a female figure as the focal point of your paintings. Is she inspired by someone in particular? Clutter 29 | 17