Painting to you means: Telling stories and creating compositions with the pictures.
A canvas is: Never finished, hahaha. When I paint: I would want to be in a bubble where the time just stops for me!
A brush is: It is one of the tools of expression of your desire and frustrations.
I am Jerome Peschard, A.K.A Skullface, a Frenchman exiled to Asia since the 2010s. Self-taught and influenced by the Universal “Pop Culture-Urban-Comics”, I focus on the importance of illustration, the texture and the support that allows me to express my Asian everyday life with its risks and unforeseen events. Thus mixing fiction and reality.
It is also the entanglement of the frustrating and ceaseless streams of my thoughts. My ideas multiply endlessly. They never stop. I have over 35 years of professional experience in the field of comics, multimedia, animation and toys! It is only natural to me, with all of these cultural codes and references circulating in my thoughts, that I try to put them all into an art form. I now concentrate on painting for my own pleasure for the rest of my remaining years.
In Vietnam, I create my collections. I painted “ DESIRED EAST / WEST” in 2017 and “SOUL LIGHT”, I started end of 2018. This will be my new exhibition. Techniques: Oil painting, acrylic and spray on rectangular steel sheets that have been recycled from construction sites in Ho Chi Minh City.
I make my composite images and stories based on my own experience living in such a rapidly changing city as Ho Chi Minh City. I fell in love with both the American the European comics books. My mom gave me my first comic book and painting kit when I was 8. The kit was oil painting and the first comic was Jack Kirby.
Making the decision to dedicate the rest of my life to art and painting was hard. I had to accept the risk I am taking. But, it is the price of doing what I love. I cannot imagine a life without art.
Jack Kirby had a strong impact on me. I began to paint heroes and the lighthouses at the seaside of Britany. That was the start of a long journey of art exploration. Growing up as an art and comics consumer from the age of 8 made it natural to return to the source of my love and joy. Many times I have started art-related businesses and I have encountered numerous challenges and experienced being in the right place at the wrong moment. Making the decision to dedicate the rest of my life to art and painting was hard. I had to accept the risk I am taking. But, it is the price of doing what I love. I cannot imagine a life without art.
I do not know if I have a definitive project, but, of course, I work on a project. I work on the theme of pop culture that inspires me, but, the most important for me is to express my flow of endless ideas and images. They feed my head every day like a hyperactive person and I wish to create all of them!
What inspired you? Pop Art, Pop Culture, the renaissance… Jean Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg, Murakami, Ed Paschke, Erró, Richard Hamilton, Pollock Jackson, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and, of course, other modern artists. I love so much these pictures!!!
What was the main obstacle you faced? The time (weather) and forgetting my ideas! What made you fall in love with painting? I think that everything has to start with Jack Kirby and the Renaissance, but, also later with James Jean, Jim Mahfood and many others. Because the list is very long for a fan of images.
Where do you see yourself going within the next few years? With the current speed of life, I would say being alive and enjoying the simple things while being surrounded by my children. Also, being rich in experience while I am painting what I like! As long as I can paint, I am happy.
What is your advice to other artists? That is difficult to answer! Every experience is unique and luck has to favour you. Lady Luck crossing paths with you and leading you straight to success is rare. I would simply tell you to do not stop expressing yourself and find support. Get the help of an assistant to promote you without looking for success and selling, because it comes naturally in the end.
We decided to expose our art to the eyes of others!!! There are also effective solutions, but, a little expensive. You organise your own exhibition, but, you normally have to give 50% commission to the galleries. Try finding other outlets like a bar or restaurant and negotiate by using your network, you pay 10-15% commission for each sale they can bring you. They get more customers and more revenue from food and drinks because you promote them. Everybody wins.
The main objective is to sell, even though I don’t like selling my work, because I need to take care of my family. I need to provide for them and still have the luxury to paint for myself.
What was your hardest assignment and why? To have time to organize my exhibitions and advertise them. Also, to find the funds for the materials of certain paintings that require extra resources such as custom glass shaping and to make neon and so on…
