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Red Ring Jolly Roger

About the artist

Jonah Block

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• View artist’s website

MJ

A word from the curator:
Now that Jonah has had a few prints, he's decided to shake up the interview process a bit! This time, instead of me doing the interviewing, Jonah decided that he'd like to be the one asking all the questions. Without further ado...

Check out Jonah's work on DeviantArt: http://biotwist.deviantart.com/

Follow Jonah on Twitter! http://twitter.com/biotwist

Jonah's interview with MJ:

How did you become a curator to TeeFury?
I was approached by TeeFury and asked if I'd like to be involved. They were familiar with my blog, Compete-tee-tion, and they had printed one of my designs in the past, so I think they had the sense that our taste was compatable and that I was someone willing to work hard to get awesome shirts printed. Mostly, though, I was probably just lucky to be in the right place at the right time!

Tell us about your website.
I started Compete-tee-tion because I wanted to know everything there was to know about the t-shirt contest world. It's intended as a resource for artists, letting them know about new contest opportunities and with reviews of some of the most high profile shirt designs being put out. It's also a lot of fun to write, though it can get pretty time consuming :)

I've since created a couple more sites about shirt-related stuff: TeeMagnet tracks limited edition shirts and PointClickApparel collects information about DTG printing and on-demand apparel sites.

Namedrop an underrated t shirt artist you think people should know about.
Tough question! There are definitely a lot of artists out there deserving of more recognition. I think I'd have to give the nod to MetaMephisto- he's an amazing artist who has racked up some nice prints in European contests, and I think he's due for some wins in America.

Have you personally met any of the other curators in real life?
Nope! It's kind of crazy to think about, but I haven't met them in person. Weird since I talk to Jimiyo just about every day!

Tell us about Professor von Platypus.
Professor von Platypus is a character I started drawing awhile back. I imagine him as being an academic type, learning all kinds of stuff and then teaching it to the rest of the ocean. He can be gruff sometimes, but he's basically a nice guy.

What are you turn ons and turn offs?
My favorite thing is the world is enthusiasm. I think too many people are cynical about the world, it's a lot more fun when you let yourself get excited and risk disappointment. Probably my biggest pet peeve would be the flip side of that- complaining. It just feels like wasted effort, when that energy could be better spent on making things better.

What is the last t-shirt you purchased?
Truthfully, it's pretty hard to remember- I impulse buy a lot of shirts, so I usually forget what I've ordered by the time I get them :)  So I'll tell you about the last shirt I got in the mail instead- it's The Four DX from Meat Bun (though mine is the white ink on black version). It was part of a Kickstarter reward for supporting the project Kill Screen (I'm reading it now and it's a pretty cool magazine so far!).

Lord of the Rings or Star Wars?
This is going to be very damaging to my nerd cred, but I've actually never seen Lord of the Rings. I gave it a try, but it didn't capture my interest- the bits I saw seemed to mainly be a lot of walking around. So Star Wars has to be the winner. I'm not a huge fan of the movies, but I do love the characters (except Luke Skywalker, who is awful) and I really enjoyed the game Knights of the Old Republic.

What is the most successful shirt you have curated?
I think my most successful curation was Hothmas by Aegis- pretty neat because he's a great artist and a really nice guy. Always fun to be able to help nice people succeed!

Are walruses the secret love children of elephants and seals?
If that's the case, I hope I never see the nature documentary about how it occurs!

What is my most attractive feature?
Clearly your ability to pick such charming and interesting interview questions :)

Teevil or Tbird, whos side are you on?
I like to think I'm on both sides! My favorite designs tend to be ones that tell a story, and it doesn't really affect my opinion if the story being told is a new twist on pop culture or something totally imaginary. Interesting work is interesting work, no matter which realm it draws from. I think a lot of the best shirts are both artful and referenced, like one of my all-time TeeFury favorites: Holy Indie Stickup! by Evanimal.