Images courtesy Jezza Smilez
Sometimes an artist seemingly has no choice but to be an artist. It seems that their life’s destiny was preordained before they dropped from their mothers protective womb into the world that would inspire them. They are born with the genes of a gifted artistic talent, the inspiration and vision of an artist, and the desire to marry them all together. This is how the story of the next artist in our artist profile series, Jezza Smilez, began.
As Jezza tells it in his blog profile, “I’ve been drawing since the womb. My mom’s uterus is covered in my earliest of works”. As far back as the age of five years old, gay cartoon artist Jezza Smilez was drawing attention grabbing art. A teacher, recognizing his talent, thought so much of it that they it to the attention of his Mother, but coming from a family of non artists, there was not much support for his talent at home. School is where Jezza found most of his support and encouragement. At 12 years of age, he was taken by his science teacher to interview with the art director at his local city newspaper. By 1994 Jezza Smilez, at 15 years of age, became a professionally published artist, hired by his Spanish teacher to illustrate characters in language education books.
Early art from Jezza concentrated around animals but as he got a bit older, he followed the same path that many present day gay cartoon artists seem to follow and started drawing superheroes. Some of his favorites were He-Man, Masters of the Universe, and Thundercats. It was the superhero drawings that used to get him into trouble as he was always drawing them naked.
After completing high school Jezza joined the US Military. During his first stint in the US Military, Jezza’s art took a recreational turn, a period in which he only drew for his own entertainment. After the military his art was completely put aside in favor of pursuing a career as a police officer. After the tragic terrorist attacks on the US on 9/11/2001, a military recall was issued and it was back to the military and off to war. During his tour of duty he once again returned to his art and through it he found a means of emotional escape from the horror of what was going on around him. It became his anchor and brought him internal peace during this difficult and trying time of his life.
Completing his second military tour of duty, Jezza decided to leave the US for a while and headed off to Australia to studying animation. This is the period Jezza says “really helped push me back in the artistic groove”. While studying in Australia, he came across the works of Patrick Fillion, an artist well known around the world for his super hunky and super sexy male characters. Jezza attributes his shift toward returning to more erotic gay cartoon art to a combination of being inspired by Patrick Fillion’s work, and exhaustion from drawing animation art.
Upon completion of school in Australia, Jezza was faced with a dilema that would turn out to slow down his artistic drive and send him into a period of depression. He had fallen in love with Australia but chose to return to the US and move to New York City to pursue his artistic opportunities. It was in New York that Jezza met another artist, JC Etheredge, known for his Anti-Heroes cartoon art. JC and friend Sean-Z of Rated-Z studios were key factors in convincing Jezza to start his blog, Jezzloads. New York proved to be too much of a culture clash and too fast paced so Jezza soon moved back to his boyhood home State of New Mexico where life took on a much slower pace. Currently residing in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Jezza is working on his blog highlighting his own work as well as reaching out and interviewing other artists as a way to interact more and keep his artistic juices flowing.
Jezza gets his inspiration for new art from a variety of places and keeps a notebook near him where he jots down his always flowing imaginative ideas. His art is influenced by outside events, television, and random conversations that he has with his friends. He says “I love sex, comics and cartoons. I feel blessed to live in a time and world that I’m free to express that.”
You can support Jezza’s work as an artist by purchasing a copy of the 2010 work, “Completely Stripped“, where Jezza was a contributing artist, from the Bruno Gmunder website and / or in the 2009 book, “Stripped: Uncensored“, where Jezza’s art is featured, on sale at Amazon.com
Connect with Jezza on facebook
Keep up with Jezzas’s latest art, his projects and read other profiles of gay cartoon artists at the Jezza Smilez blog.
