UV: Would you consider your work to be in any way autobiographical?
JL: Sure. A lot of my ideas for paintings derive from objects that remind me of my childhood. I like to take the memory of an object, and recreate it in the present. For awhile now, I've been into drawing people featured on game and toy box covers that i had when i was younger. To me, their looks are still disturbing. Besides painting I'm drawing and screen printing for Slow Loris Shirts. (slowshirts.com) The majority of the designs are toys and tv stars I liked when I was a kid. I had quite the crush on Ponche from Chips...

UV: Your piece on the cover is really funny ... is your sense of humor always this evident in your work?
JL: To me, Yes. To my mother, No.

UV: You attended CCAC ... did studying art in the Bay Area affect your values or ethics as an artist? How did it affect your style, or your sense of aesthetics?
JL: Yes, experiences effected my values in the sense that the attitude conveyed in many of my pieces reflects bizarre scenarios, most of which I encountered while living in Oakland. But as far as traditional values or ethics? No. I started mostly drawing industrial type things. Trains, sprinkler systems, wrecked cars and printing presses kept surfacing in my sketchbooks. I had been drawing mazes if images consisting of lines and shapes that covered entire surfaces. When I transferred to CCAC, my work turned it's focus more to reality instead of fantasy. Dreams also continue to play a big role in my work.

UV: Who Are the figures in your paintings?
JL: Real people, but I have no clue who they are. They're from a photograph I bought at the Laney College swap meet around four years ago. Some kinda nun birthday party. I remember my friends Andy and Stafon were really jealous, but I once was a tap dancing nun in the Sound of Music, so I rightfully deserved to own it.

UV: Tell us about your process.
JL: I don't really know what to say. I don't have a process.