Embark on a journey through color and emotion with Jason, the Memphis-born artist whose vibrant vision is reshaping the local art scene. As we navigate his story, from the genesis of his artistic passion to his current acclaim, you'll discover the profound impact of family, collaboration, and community on his work. Jason's wife isn't just his life partner but a pivotal force in his creative process, helping him infuse each piece with a depth that goes beyond the canvas. His commitment to authenticity allows him to tackle the fluid demands of clients, ensuring that his artwork isn't just seen but felt, offering a haven of healing and connection for all who experience it.
Strap in for a revealing chat that transcends the typical artist's tale. Hear how Jason, with the heartbeat of Memphis at his core, took a mural commission and turned it into a homage to the city's soul, confronting misconceptions and celebrating the essence of his home. Attune to his drive, which stems from a desire to paint a life less ordinary for himself and his family—a life rich with purpose and adorned with the fruits of his labor. For those with a spark of creativity burning within, Jason's words serve as a beacon, illuminating the path to pursuing one's artistic dreams and the importance of surrounding oneself with those who fan the flames of ambition and joy.
If your in the music industry- singer, songwriter, composer, indie, neo singer, rapper, country artist, promoter, manager, music lawyer or blues please email me to be a guest on my show at myguest@spit2dabeat.com I would love to hear your Spit about the Music Industry.
Embark on a journey through color and emotion with Jason, the Memphis-born artist whose vibrant vision is reshaping the local art scene. As we navigate his story, from the genesis of his artistic passion to his current acclaim, you'll discover the profound impact of family, collaboration, and community on his work. Jason's wife isn't just his life partner but a pivotal force in his creative process, helping him infuse each piece with a depth that goes beyond the canvas. His commitment to authenticity allows him to tackle the fluid demands of clients, ensuring that his artwork isn't just seen but felt, offering a haven of healing and connection for all who experience it.
Strap in for a revealing chat that transcends the typical artist's tale. Hear how Jason, with the heartbeat of Memphis at his core, took a mural commission and turned it into a homage to the city's soul, confronting misconceptions and celebrating the essence of his home. Attune to his drive, which stems from a desire to paint a life less ordinary for himself and his family—a life rich with purpose and adorned with the fruits of his labor. For those with a spark of creativity burning within, Jason's words serve as a beacon, illuminating the path to pursuing one's artistic dreams and the importance of surrounding oneself with those who fan the flames of ambition and joy.
If your in the music industry- singer, songwriter, composer, indie, neo singer, rapper, country artist, promoter, manager, music lawyer or blues please email me to be a guest on my show at myguest@spit2dabeat.com I would love to hear your Spit about the Music Industry.
you, you.
Speaker 2:For.
Speaker 3:I'm your host, stacy aka be unstoppable prayer. Hey y'all, endeavor to check us out. Right now. We are live on Facebook at Stacy be unstoppable prayer and Stacy spit to the beat prayer. Definitely go on my YouTube channel at spit to the beat, login and subscribe, like and hit that notification bell. I definitely would appreciate you becoming one of my sponsor and a listener. Thank you again for joining me on spit to the beat podcast.
Speaker 3:I am live in the studio, got a very special guest joining me today. He's known all over the city and soon to be known all over the world, hit with his paintings and his drawing. The man, the young man, is incredibly talented. I have seen him grown, grow over the couple of years that I just known him and he did a painting for me in my own home. So I've been super excited and I've been watching them to keep tabs on to see how he has progressed and he has elevated and elevated and elevated. Him and his beautiful wife. They are team that the God is just taking them to another level each and every year. So I know 2024 gonna be so awesome that we hadn't seen nothing yet. But today I want to bring you home my guest, my friend, the artist, the painter, jason, come on how you doing, man.
Speaker 1:I can't complain one bit. I'm happy to be here. I really am.
Speaker 3:Good, good.
Speaker 1:And so, um, tell us a little bit about yourself, All right. Well, first thing first. My name is Jason man, born and raised here in Memphis, Tennessee, 31 years old. I've been doing I've been doing art my entire life, but it took to 2016 to start doing it as a business.
Speaker 3:Uh-huh.
Speaker 1:Um, one thing about me is I'm a humongous family, family man and I stick very close to home and to the things that I love and to the things I believe in. So that's why I truly believe that, you know, this whole art thing is going to take off and it's going to be worldwide, like you just said.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Born and raised here. Look, let's talk about, uh no, for the people to get to know you a little bit more, what inspired you, oh God?
Speaker 1:Um, the the main thing that inspires me, uh, all the time, is colors. So, grown up here in Memphis, this is a large bowl of different type of cultures of people. So when you look at my art pieces, it's not just you know black and white and not saying there's anything wrong with that, but my art pieces is a staple of their environment that I grew up around. So every piece that I create and every piece that I'm going to create in the future is going to be, uh, based out of Memphis and my culture, my experience and, uh, and the love for the things that I have. So that's what really inspired me and keeps me going.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Let's talk about a little bit of your artistic work. Uh, how do you uh go about designing your process and everything and come now with a beautiful final product?
Speaker 1:My God, my process is is so simple. Number one I always ask myself what do I want to say? Uh? Number two, I ask, like you know, what do people need to hear? So I don't just paint for myself, I paint for the people around me, and the people that's either hurt, broken or need to have a, a sense of happiness. Okay, so my process I always ask those two questions. I do the sketch and I ask my wife. My wife is, like you know, the backbone of life and color studio. So I asked my wife like hey, what do, what is this saying to you? Or what should I do better? Or what should I change? And with her input, because she is very big on, like you know, emotions and everything, so with her input it really takes my artwork to a whole another level.
Speaker 3:I just take what she say, put it down on canvas, so that's and I think that you uh just to get out what you just said. I think about your painting, your paintings, that uh, you talk about the healing and things like that. Do you go in with that mindset to to change the person, or you want the person attitude and behavior when they look at your painting, to be, to be moved by God?
Speaker 1:it's both. So I go in with the mindset yes, yes, I listen to my customers, or I listen to the cries of the people. I say, all right, cool, they need something that's going to speak life into them. I know that one of the most powerful colors to ever use is the color red. Red is passionate and in certain times, red is anger as well, but it depends on who you talk to. So when I go in, I ask myself what do I need to say to this particular person or to this particular group? And then, after I talk to them, I'm like, oh, okay, cool. So now you told me this and I hear this as well. So that's an add on to the art piece. So, like I said, I'm not just creating something that's supposed to look good, but I'm creating something that's supposed to feel good. Wow. So it's deeper than that.
Speaker 3:So it kind of gives you your theme, your subject or what you're going into. When you start painting, you kind of feel like you know, this is where I'm going, this is the direction. Have you had a mid direction change one time painting?
Speaker 1:Oh my God, oh my God. Let me tell you, I've had companies reach out to me and say, hey, we want something that's more presidential and I'll get started on it. And then, after they look at it and they go over like they go over all of the over everybody's opinions and everything, and they'll say, hey, mr Jason, I know we say we want something presidential, but how about you make something a little bit more personal? I can definitely do that. Making something presidential is a little too concrete. It's not a lot of flexibility. So when you look at that, you're just going to just see one thing. But you want me to make something personal? Say, let's, I can do that for you. I can. I can put the emotions, I can put the character, I can put all of those things in this one painting. So I've had a lot of mid-shift changes, but it's all about pivoting and learning how to adapt. Yeah, it's not going to always be perfect. It's not going to always be easy.
Speaker 3:Cool, let's talk about. We jumped to here about definitely wanting to touch on how you came up with life and colors. So I'm understanding it more now because we are talking, but I want you to explain it.
Speaker 1:So I, oh man, I came up with life and colors First thing, first, my favorite, one of my favorite bands of all time is One Republic. I can listen to them repeatedly, like without skipping a song, and they came out with a song called Life and Color. And that song, it speaks life and it speaks to the child that's created the side of us, and it speaks to helping us grow not just as a person but as a leader, as a public figure. It speaks to that. So when I started Life and Colors, it was directly to that aspect of people's nature, trying to pull something out of them that we either forgot or we never had. So I needed something that was going to help not just myself but other people. So Life and Colors Studio making more artsy. There you go.
Speaker 3:Look, we're going to take a short break. We're going to come back. We're going to talk about this beautiful pain that you brought to the studio. We'll be right back, okay.
Speaker 1:You're listening to Spit, to the Beat Podcast with your host V1, the only Stacey B Unstoppable Per Year.
Speaker 3:Good. Hey, this is Stacey, aka the Unstoppable Per Year with Spit to the Beat Podcast. Would you like to be my guest? If you're a singer, songwriter, musician, producer or promoter, email, call at 901-341-6777 or email me at myguestsatspit2thebeatcom. We're back to Spit to the Beat Podcast. I'm your host, stacey AKA B Unstoppable Per Year, and joining me in the studio is my guy, jason the painter, the artist. I'm just putting the name on him, but I'm going to let him describe himself Well. He's an amazing young talent artist man and he's all over the city of Memphis, not even hard to find. We're going to get into the details, how you can get in touch with him later, but joining me right now we're talking about this beautiful artwork that he brought in the studio. Jason, tell us about this man.
Speaker 1:Oh, so fun fact behind this entire piece, I created something very similar two years ago and it was for Lowe's. So when Lowe's approached me again this year, it was like hey, we want something that represent Memphis, something that's going to speak life to our workers. So they wanted to purchase this. So after I settled for a couple of days, couple of weeks actually settled for a couple of weeks I came out with the drawing, I colored it, I presented it to him. They loved it. Well, then it came back to me and it was like hey, that looks great. However, we want something that's more lousy. I'm like, okay, I can put a truck on it for you, like you know, right on the little bridge, or I can put loads on one of the buildings. So then they say, hey, how about this? Do a simple drawing of loads and then put this on there. And I was like I can't do that, this is way too personal.
Speaker 3:So after I created this, so this is the original planning that they were telling you to put the load on, so okay.
Speaker 1:This is the original piece. And then, when they approached me, it was going to be massive. It was going to be a mural at first. So they approached me. I came out with the design, I showed them how big it was going to be on the wall. They loved it. We talked in numbers, we talked in figures and after that they switched up the whole thing. Remember, like you said, have you?
Speaker 3:ever had a transition. That's what that was In the middle of something In the middle of it.
Speaker 1:So after that they came up with all these other ideas. I'm listening and I'm like no man, this is bigger than me, this is for my city. So after all of those, after all they back and forth with them, I sat down with my wife and I was like yo, babe, I think I need to do this for myself, I need to put this on a big canvas and I need to really specify the life of Memphis. So when I created this, my mindset was on speaking, not to what I see, because when you talk to your average Memphis, they'll tell you the crime and everything that's happened in the Memphis. But with this is all about speaking life over our city, over our people.
Speaker 1:So every brush stroke that I put down was intentional. I wanted people to feel what Memphis is. Stop paying attention to what you see on the news, because, in our honesty, it's easy to walk by sight, but it's hard to walk by fear. So with this painting, I wanted that to be known like hey, we're bigger than what you've been saying on the news. Like, bro, we're colorful, we're passionate, we're love. Well, we're more than what you think we are. So have you named this piece?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:The name of this piece is called DNA. The soul of Memphis.
Speaker 3:DNA. The soul of Memphis. The soul of Memphis. Wow, and how did this come about? How did that strike you? I just looked at it.
Speaker 1:I sat down, I named it before I even got done with it. So I sat down, I was like 75% done with the Memphis Grizzly Bear and I'm looking at it. I'm like DNA, that's what I'm gonna name this. So then, after I put DNA on it, the soul of Memphis. And I was like say less Okay, so that's what.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna name this the soul of Memphis. So when people ask, hey, what is this DNA? The soul of Memphis? That's tight, I love it. I want people to feel. So that's how this right here came about.
Speaker 3:I was expecting. Let me ask you what keeps you inspired, what motivates you to keep painting Jesus? Because I know we tackle a lot of different things in life and life has its way of embarking on our lives. So what keeps you inspired and motivated?
Speaker 1:The main thing that keeps me inspired is remembering why I got started.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The why Like it's. You know the why is so? It's such a normal question. However, it's such a powerful question. So my why is my family? My why is my purpose? My community, memphis that's my why. So anytime I get frustrated or God forbid, I want to quit, things go back to that Like, okay, cool. I remember I started and then I also remember that, hey, I don't got this far. It's been four years with Life in Color Studio. I ain't going nowhere. If I stop, it's because I chose to stop and I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon. As a particular type of lifestyle I'm trying to live my wife is not a Speak it into an example.
Speaker 3:I swear.
Speaker 1:My wife ain't no two bedroom type of woman. I got three kids now.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm making some babies. I met a song Like I'm trying to get somewhere and I know that art is going to get me there. I'm not. I'm not good at a nine to five Like. I'm a great worker but I'm not mentally conditioned for nine to five. So to get to the type of lifestyle that I want, I know this is going to take me there. You gonna make it happen. Yes, sir, or or that's wrong.
Speaker 3:There you go, your determination I know Because I see it. I said this is something he determined to make this art, because I think, I think I knew that you did pick up a job for a minute. Then I ain't see it no more. And then I just started seeing you places out, the places all over the city of Memphis. I said, okay, I see what he doing. I've been lifting you up in prayers as far as making it happen to him. Man, definitely you and your wife. Man, it's gone, it's done, it's already in the atmosphere to happen.
Speaker 1:I'm definitely praying over it. I'm like man, I can't. The first job I've ever had, man, it was in the warehouse and I wasn't. I wasn't told to go out there and follow my dreams, I wasn't told that. So I was told to go get a nine to five. I wasn't told to go to college. I wasn't told none of those things. Right after high school and you're going to get your job. And I would have been. I would have been a little grateful. They would have been like, hey, don't get your job at Lowes Home Depot, yeah, but it was a warehouse, so that kind of broke, something. They'd be all like, hey, man, this nine to five is like it's for the birds, bro, and I'm not, I'm not built for it, I ain't built for it at all.
Speaker 3:I love. I'm gonna take another short break. I'm gonna come back. I want to talk about your art, as far as what you think about art in the society today, and how does it play? Okay, I'm ready for that. Okay, cool.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to spit to the beat podcast. Want to know how you can help Be a sponsor by going to our website at wwwspit to the beat podcastcom and click the support tab. You can also join us each and every week, live at YouTube and spit to the beat. Don't forget to subscribe, like and follow. Thank you for your support.
Speaker 3:And welcome back to Spit, to the Beat podcast. I'm your host, stacey AKA, be on Stopper for Perrier and joining me in the studio. My special guest, jason the artist, the painter. Everything this young man is really taking out with his art around the city of Memphis. If you have not seen him, I'm sure he's been somewhere close by that you can see his work, but he gonna give you more detail about that later on in the show. So we're back. We're talking about your art work and stuff like that. How does art plays in today's society? And no art is art, but your art, your feel, what is your take on that?
Speaker 1:My take on it. Art is very important. In my opinion, art was produced for one reason, one reason only, and that was to speak life. That was the main thing art was made for. Now, granted, we didn't get that from away from it, but my role is to try to bring it back to our roots, like we are stationed to create a reality off of what we want to see. And we want to see life, we want to see love, we want to see unity. So every artist paints those type of things because those things are very important. Art is very essential to society, and when we get back to the foundation of what art is, I mean, I truly believe that everything will go back. Everything will change for our good. That's what I believe. So I can't speak for everybody, but that's what I believe.
Speaker 3:What was your background as far as studying art? Did you go to college for it, or how did that come?
Speaker 1:So my background man. It started that's what, pencil and paper. Like man, I remember I tell this story a lot. That's what makes it so funny.
Speaker 1:I came home from school one day and I had a cousin. He was in the back room. He was watching Dragon Ball Z. He was sitting down drawing. I walked up on him. I'm like what's that? He was like it's Dragon Ball Z. I'm like, dude, I know what Dragon Ball Z is. What's that you're doing? And he was like I'm doing the drawing of Goku. So I'm like I wanna learn. He showed me how to do it simple lines, boom. I made a face. I'm like this is what I wanna do. And it felt like you know how, when you're under the water and you're longing for that breath of fresh air, that's what it felt like. It felt like I'm finally breathing for the very first time. And that was at the age of six. So after that, I've been drawing for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:And then I attended art college. I attended art college back in 2013. And I got around it like-minded people like myself. That was going after the goals that I wanted to go after and it just added even more fuel to the fire. So now I'm 31 years old and I can't eat, sleep, drink without doing some type of art. Wow, without even thinking about it. I think about art constantly, so my studies at MCA was just what to do to get better, how to better my craft, how to be intentional with every piece that I create. Art history was one of my favorite classes. I never talked about it, though, but I wanted to be very intentional with my art pieces, so I learned from the masters and I dedicated myself to a lifelong lifelong love and passion of art. So that's what I did.
Speaker 3:Well, let me ask you this In saying what you just said, what would be your motivation to tell young up and coming artists, painters who want to get into it, to not to quit?
Speaker 1:every young artist out there is simple Remember why you got started and have fun. Those are the two things I promise you. I promise you take this from someone that has been doing it for years. I remember why I got started and I have fun. Yes, I get paid, but I have fun and like. Surround yourself with people. That's either where you wanna be or going where you want to go. Don't surround yourself with bottom mind type people. Surround yourself with people that speak life, with people that speak positivity, with people that want better for themselves, because when they want better for themselves, they're gonna want better for you as well, right? So if you are a young artist and you're trying to stay motivated, hang out with people. That's motivated.
Speaker 3:There you go, there you go. Hey, couldn't say it better. Let's just say this last question yes, do you have any upcoming projects? I mean it looked like you said you just level painting, coming here to be on the podcast as we speak, so and then coming up for, like I know, we got Memphis and May coming up you going to draw anything, painting anything for that?
Speaker 1:I'm working on it right now, but I have. I just got done doing discussing with Choose. Now no One just got done discussing with them. I'm painting live at their Women's event on the 16th. Be excited for that right there, be looking out for it.
Speaker 3:Are you going to hold on? Let me, let me jump in.
Speaker 1:I'm excited.
Speaker 3:Are you going to take that painting with you, the one with the black women on it? That's going to sell.
Speaker 1:With that piece right there. I want that to be. I want that to be part of my One man Art Show. So I want to do a One man Art Show this year sometime in July, because this is around my birthday money everything like that.
Speaker 1:But if they ask me to bring that to post up somewhere, I think you should bring it anyway. You know what? I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to send them a text message. I'm like hey, you know I got this painting. Can I bring that with me while I'm working on this other painting? Because what they want? They just want something that provides unity with the women in our city.
Speaker 1:So with Choose Now no One, if you're familiar with them, they're all about positivity over our city and when they saw me what makes this so funny? They saw me painting this live at Crosstown, concord, over there in the downtown on Midtown area. So the young man came out. He started talking to me. He was like hey, man, is this yours? Started talking to him about my work, about my vision. He did a free recording of me working on this piece, like a small type of interview, interview, whatever and it blew up. So does one of the big time executives with Choose Now no One reached out to me and asked me to do a painting for them and progress this history. But the answer to the question I got a lot going on. I got a lot coming up, cool cool Look.
Speaker 3:tell the audience how can they find you on social media platforms, how can they reach you?
Speaker 1:So you can find me on anything at my name, jason Colbert, or, if you want to find me at my business, life and colors studio, all right, when I tell you I'm super easy to find. It was on purpose. I'm super easy to find.
Speaker 3:I think I've seen you had posted on social media a lady presenting you with a picture or something, a plaque with your thumb there.
Speaker 1:Oh, that one's amazing Let me go ahead and that's one of the man. I don't want to get emotional, but that's one of the things that, like you know, it adds on to my why, because that's a young, that's an artist that I look up to. So when you have seasoned vets that you look up, to acknowledge you. Yeah, and I'm young. Yeah, so this is a seasoned veteran in art, has started her own business, she got her own sticker company, all of those things, and she reached out to me offering a plaque with my fingerprint on.
Speaker 1:So I knew it was going to be awesome, but I didn't know it was going to be like that and you didn't know it was there. No, I didn't. So when she showed it to me and I had to make sure everybody understood, like man, those emotions in that video was real, I believe it. I was almost in tears Cause I like, okay, you wanted the reasons I keep going and, like I said, to have somebody that's a seasoned veteran tell you that you inspire them. I'm like man, I'm still young, so I'm like, wow, okay.
Speaker 3:But they can definitely find you all over social media, facebook or YouTube.
Speaker 1:Instagram.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Good, good. What's that?
Speaker 3:phone number game. Say that however you want. If you want to contact you or by email you want to contact me, I give everybody my number I don't care what it is you want to contact me, it's 6628123296.
Speaker 1:Facebook I answered all of my messages direct, direct and as fast as I possibly can to and, like I said, I'm easy to find, easy to get in contact with. I ain't hard to find. It all Good, good.
Speaker 3:All right, there you have it. Thank you, cobra, on spit to the beat podcast, joining me live in the studio talking about art and his passion behind the brush. Thank you again for joining us on spit to the beat podcast. And then the final thing you would like to say in the shout outs you'd like to give out.
Speaker 1:I want to give a shout out to. Well, first thing, I want to give a shout out to you for inviting me. Appreciate it. You have no idea that this is an honor. Like I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I feel love. Appreciate it for that. And second, if I want to give a shout out to my beautiful wife at home taking care of our magnificent kids, being who you are always speaking life over over me, over our situations.
Speaker 1:And another thing I want to give a shout out to those who believe in me and if you don't mind me saying this, I made a post on Facebook on probably like three years prior. On three years ago, I was like I was born in 2000. I was born in 1992. I didn't start living into 2016. So a lot of people in 2016 spoke life to this. I would not be here if it was not for them. My church, divine life, my pastor, apostle Tony way all of them. I love y'all so much. I honor y'all, I respect y'all and I would not be here if it was not for y'all. So that's, those are people I definitely want to shout out.
Speaker 3:All right, great, great, all right. There you have it. Jason Kobe, the artist, the painter, everything this young man is. Definitely y'all want to keep your eye out on him. His painting will go worldwide. He's in the city, all over the city, so if you need to get in touch with him he just gave you the information He'd be glad to work with you on anything or any project that is comfortable for you and him as well. Thank you again for joining us on Spit to the Beat podcast and we are out. Thank you for watching Spit to the Beat podcast. Join us again for another live episode next week. Thank you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you.