UV: You have been painting for years, in addition to writing and making comic books, and now are having your first show. What brought about this new dedication to painting?
JI: Paintings are a bizarre shift from comic books because they have no element of time whereas comic books are a sequential art form. This aspect of making comics is subtle and difficult to master if you aren't used to telling stories with written or visual language. Making comics takes a great deal of time, and when I had a brian-aneurysm last October, I started to feel like I didn't have much time. I had to get these ideas out fast! Time is more precious than money because people never know how much they have.

UV: Where do your ideas come from?
JI: My ideas come from my subconcious mind. It spits up tons of nonsense. Or is it nonsense? Nonsense is just a word for something we are incapable of understanding. My paintings demand a fair amount of creativity from people who look at them. It's good to look at my paintings if you have some kind of background in dream-interpretation.

UV: Why do you make things?
JI: It's an obsession, or course. Why else make things? The world is full of garbage made by America or for America. That's why I prefer to paint on boards people have left lying on the street. All the free "canvases" around Ashby Avenue are a nice bonus to living in this area. I'm trying to secure some second-hand paint connections next.

UV: What is a bigger threat to urban dwelling, squirrels or robots?
JI: Is this a reference to James Kochalka's Monkey vs. Robot? Well, robots in the world today tear up the streets, make too much noise, and kill things. Being an urban dweller myself, I deem squirrels less of a threat. Squirrels probably have more interesting thoughts than robots, plus squirrels are quite acrobatic and very entertaining to watch. In another sense, robots are part of urban dwelling, so we've got to make sure that we have a positive relationship with technology that is healthy for everyone, even the squirrels.