John Jennings is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Jennings frequently lectures on visual literacy, popular culture, and the visual communication found in Hip Hop culture. Jennings is also the co-author of the graphic novel The Hole: Consumer Culture and a co-founder of Eye Trauma, a web based collective of sequential artists, activists, and curators who seek to expand the public’s perception of the comics medium.

http://www.eyetrauma.net
http://www.front40press.com
http://www.myspace.com/sum28design

ARTIST STATEMENT.

I believe that everything on our planet has a purpose and a reason.
Therefore, nothing is trivial. It all matters. I have tried to fashion
myself into a conduit for all of the stimuli that our world generates
and mix it into a visual stew that everyone can sate themselves with.
Sometimes the recipe is very tasty. Sometimes the repast can be
bitter. However, the outcome is only part of the reason why I love
what I do so very much. I love the process of imagemaking. I love
the delicate nuances of the journey when I am trying to find a
solution for a visual problem.

I believe the designer/illustrator should use their acumen to
better mankind in some fashion. They should strive to
be a reporter, a medium, a storyteller, a jester, and a confidant.
We remind people of what the things in our lives really mean.
We provide visual smelling salts for the imagination and inject fire
into the aesthetic bellies of any one fortunate to come across
our organized chaos. The artist should be a visual shaman; ready
to weave a spell in order to get to the crux of whatever counts
for that moment.

I want people to move. I want people to see the world around them.
I want people to cherish each breath that they take. More and more
these days our lives get in the way of living. Hopefully, some strange
design or foolish image that I have been lucky enough to be a vessel
for makes people remember something that they lost long ago. As
rapper Taib Kweli says "life is a beautiful struggle". The artist should always be on the front lines of that conflict.