Meet Mason Jar | Illustrator and Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mason Jar and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mason, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I like to work in a public setting. I often paint outdoors with a portable easel in public parks, on the beach or simply on a busy street. It feels risky sometimes because you’re falling back on your baseline – you never know how you’re going to perform that day or how good the painting will turn out. Sometimes I get inside my head that people passing by may judge or scrutinize the work, especially if I’m having an off day and I can’t quite catch my footing. The risk is that the painting might not be my best. But that’s kinda what I love about it. You show up and put yourself on the spot to produce something authentic. Hopefully with enough experience, even an off day will result in something better than I used to be able to make on my best days.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Being an artist isn’t easy. But I also don’t really feel like it’s a choice! It’s more like a personality flaw or a curse. I’m not sure why I’m like this but I’m gonna have to live with it. I’m at risk of sounding pretentious but I’m gonna try to get my thoughts out there.

My work deals with themes of isolation. My paintings often feature an empty landscape, places where people should be but appear absent. My comics are very personal and often express a certain anxiety or alienation that I’m feeling. Although I draw and paint in a few different styles I think the trappings of isolation would be the main theme connecting them all together. But I fundamentally believe creating art is about bringing people together, which helps put that anxiety at ease. I like to create work in a group setting, either outside with friends or with different art communities throughout the city. I think most people struggle with that feeling of isolation so expressing it in my work helps people relate to it.

I’ve learned a whole lot about finding my own process. Every artist has a different process so don’t try to imitate someone else’s. Some people are fast and some are slow. Some people work best alone in their studio and others outdoors with a group. I’ve had to learn to be honest with myself about where I’m at and be okay with my shortcomings. Most importantly, I’ve learned that spending my time creating art is totally worth it.

These days I am excited to facilitate my own painting workshops to help others learn to paint. I held an outdoor plein air painting event which was quite successful and garnered a lot of interest from the public who just happened to be walking by. It really reinforced this philosophy that passing on your skills is a good thing to be doing. Sometimes it can be hard to prioritize stuff like that when everyone is panicking about how bad the job market is and how AI art is going to take over the industry. I’m really not worried about AI hosting painting workshops in the park.

In terms of my style, I have been trying to superimpose faces and designs into landscape paintings. What I mean is, I may look at a tree or a mountain on the horizon and somewhere in my brain I interpret a character in there. I am synthesizing my own interpretation of the setting and exaggerating those characteristics with the medium. It’s kinda surreal and trippy, which is making me want to lean into it more. I’m also writing a comic about my cat not understanding how to use the litter box.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My absolute favourite spot in Toronto is called Tommy Thompson park, AKA the Leslie Spit. It’s a man-made peninsula on the east end of Toronto constructed out of architectural landfill. There are a few beaches made up of eroded bricks and deconstructed buildings which have been reclaimed by nature over the past 70 years. It’s quite the surreal place – lots of odd pieces of smoothed out tiles and slabs of marble worn down by the tide. It’s also a strangely abundant nature reserve with many endangered species and unlikely wildlife all co-existing amongst each other. I have brought my easel and painted there quite a few times. This place is really cool and I would bring anyone there who is interested in something unusual and serene. It’s like the perfect blend of dense nature and abandoned industrialization.

For food I’d probably get dumplings in Chinatown. Toronto has some of the best authentic Chinese food. And I’d also get tickets to see a cult film at the Revue theater on Roncesvalles. That theater has been there for over 100 years.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I learned to oil paint at the Youth Arcade Studio in Kensington Market, Toronto when I was a student. The program is called the Kensington Art Academy (KAA.) It’s a youth arts program with workshops and art mentorship programs where young people can create art together. It is currently being facilitated by a friend of mine named Amelia Stea-Maclaurin. My experience there really inspired me to create art in a group setting and pass on my skills to up-and-coming artists. I had my first art show there. It gave me the confidence to put my art up on a wall and feel legit about it. I also want to shout out the Toronto Comic Jam, which is a monthly get together in Toronto for comics artists. We essentially draw improvisational comics with each other and get drunk, it’s pretty awesome. I’ve met a lot of very talented artists there of all different walks of life.

Instagram: @mxsonjxr

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/masonbc

Other: masonbarnescrouse@gmail.c0m