James Patrick: King of the Dots

My first encounter with Sydney-based artist James Patrick was during his ‘Sketches of A Bitter Man’  leggings live art piece for Black Milk Clothing in January.

Enclosed in a partition, he sat hunched on his stool in a bustling corridor in World Square, with his paper mounted on an easel, headphones in, eyes intensely locked on the marker in his hand, drawing an imperfect line.

Wearing my Black Milk Union Jack suspenders, I hesitantly walked up behind him and introduced myself. Breaking his deep concentration, he turned to me and gave me a huge smile. More than happy to chat, James’ bubbly personality and down-to-earth nature was quickly obvious as he took me through the piece, explaining each development and where the ideas came from.

I got an overwhelming sense of freedom in James’ work; his dots, strokes of coloring in, outlining all illustrated his creative process. He explained how he craved imperfection, and how the mistakes often become the best parts of the work. I was lucky to get a quick chat with him again, where he expanded on his process further

“I don’t like the symmetry and it to be too perfect,” he said to me. “I like it to look a bit disjointed or strange so I’ll randomise the lines and try not to make it perfect.”

Fast-forward four months, and the ‘Sketches of a Bitter Man’ artwork – his second Black Milk commission after ‘Sketches of a Man Man‘ — is complete, and Black Milk Clothing have shipped the limited edition leggings to buyers the world over.

His unique blend of comic art, tattoo art and detailed surrealism was years in the making, and began with eight-year-old James scribbling shapes and patterns while watching Mr Squiggle; he was inspired and heavily influenced by the memorable TV show doodler.

“[Mr Squiggle] taught me how to draw,” he laughs, “but I’ll usually start with one image, and let the rest evolve from there. When I say evolve, I mean I might start drawing an object, around that I’ll add lines and shapes and step back and look at what I see within the lines.”

Venturing to university, Patrick began a degree in fine arts  to later drop out and pursue his creative license on his own. “95% is self-taught and [my own] study pretty much”, he said.

James doesn’t like to overthink his artwork. Instead, he prefers his gut instinct, which keeps his spontaneous creativity alive.

“I find that for me, it can ruin my own style when it’s so specific what someone wants, I’d rather just do my own style with limited limitations.”

 

His imagination was able to run rampant with a recent commission for Black Milk Clothing; where idea input from fans through Facebook electrified the free spirit in his marker-stained hand for last year’s artworks for James’ Bistro, Advisible, G-Star Raw and Pie Face. 

“G-Star was really flexible which is why I agreed to the project, I found they had a campaign with the skeleton of a greyhound and it matched my style. If it wasn’t that I mightn’t have done it, I didn’t just want to draw a person in jeans,” he laughs.

James’ piece for Pie Face was extraordinary – for two days he painted images of famous people on cooked pies using tomato sauce, and over that time, ate a large number of pies. His reason for taking the commission?

“I just want to try weird things, weird art, experiment a bit I guess, and I like food a lot.”

His intriguing and delicious experimentation will hopefully continue, as he plans on trialling coffee next.

Juggling his business, Magique, and managing magicians while working on commissions and personal projects, James plans on taking a step back from his business this year, to focus 90% of his time on art.

James is currently working on a Michael Jordan commission, building his own collection, and two murals in Sydney city — though the latter is quite hush-hush.

“I have [the murals] mapped, I’m just waiting on the clients to confirm first though before I release anything, just in case,” he says.

As his piece for G-Star sits in their Melbourne headquarters away from the public eye, Black Milk girls worldwide flaunt his ‘Sketches of a Man Man’ and ‘Sketches of a Bitter Man’ artworks on their legs.

“That’s an advantage,” he says. “People wearing it is awesome.”

While he loved the flexibility of the Black Milk Clothing commissions, James believes his best work is in the future.

“I think my favourite work is yet to come, though, as I’m starting my own collection.”

James Patrick’s website is  under construction until late May, in preparation for his upcoming international artwork release. You can contact him for commissions through Facebook. 

Text by Hannah Quill.