Jimmy Tucker
“Life is great when you’re only 8 years old,” says Jimmy Tucker. “Life is not hard, not a question. Life is just life. Love is always there to greet you when you get home. Why can’t life be like this all the time?”
Jimmy Tucker is a New York-based artist who loves cartoons and has big feelings. Through his drawing practice, he revisits his experience of watching ‘90s TV as a kid, infusing yesteryear’s animated memories with the chaos of today’s topsy turvy world. With jam-packed details, jagged lines, and supersaturated colors, Jimmy conjures “a vision of imaginational funness,” a playful and dizzying view inside his memories, emotions, and relationships.
Jimmy’s drawings are like Saturday morning cartoons that, over time, began spiraling over past regrets and future uncertainties. An innocent escape to happy-land rudely interrupted by intrusive thoughts and existential dread. Jimmy’s visions capture the full range of human feeling and find beauty in the chaos. “It’s all mixed together – fear, change, creativity, all woven into one cosmic ball.”
Jimmy’s drawings depict “vivid characters meeting in the chaos of an uncertain world.” Though the work resembles psychedelic science fiction, many of his drawings are inspired by the stuff of his daily life. Characters are based on people Jimmy knows and loves – his friends, family, mentors, therapists and fellow artists. Lots of them are represented as having a disability, and through Jimmy’s drawings, become superheroes, martial artists, galactic patrol officers, super villains, business people, and more. “I see so many shows that use themes of anxiety and depression and I’m inspired by that. I wanted to put that in my characters so people can see the struggles that other people go through.”
Looking at a Jimmy drawing gives you a glimpse into the past, present and future, the real and the imagined, the rose-tinted and spine tingling. He depicts, with joy and irreverence, the bubbling cauldron of a chaotic mind and sensitive heart. “When I create my characters, it’s my way of watching my 8-year-old self watching cartoons again. That type of joy is something that’s indescribable. To create something that is your own vision.”
Jimmy is a member of YAI Arts, a studio for artists with intellectual disabilities in NYC. Jimmy has a mother and sister and chihuahua dog named Paco who he extraordinarily adores, and he lives in Manhattan with his mom and Paco.
This residency is generously supported by The New York Community Trust, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and New York Department of Cultural Affairs.
