Q&A by Cory Lesniak & Alejandra Rodriguez

Edited by Alejandra Rodriguez

Photos by Alejandra Rodriguez

Jacob Thomas races around Chicago, gathering all of his artwork to display it under one roof before he leaves the city to return to New York. Gallery F in Logan Square will temporarily be housing his iconic political pieces, including his most famous, “Piece of $hit,” which represents President Trump as a toilet with a pile-of-poo emoji inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Thomas, now 40, moved to Chicago over a year ago, he was surprised by the lack of street art and aimed to change that by posting his artwork in desolate spaces—boarded-up houses, construction sites. The city embraced him with early artwork like Bat Trump, and he was inspired to make more political images, depicting Trump as Richie Rich, Mr. Monopoly, an Andy Warhol-inspired Mao Zedong and Trump-Marilyn Monroe.

 

In this Q&A, Thomas talks about his experience with the art scene in Chicago and how politics has influenced his artistic creativity.

 

What inspired you to become an artist?

 

I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. My idea of making art for a living was Norman Rockwell, paintings for advertising or something like that. And when I went to school it was probably when I really started getting an idea of how to become a working artist today. It’s always been kind of a path—every job that I’ve ever taken, Coast Guard included—it all focused on the angle of being an artist for a living.

 

Has your artwork always been political?

 

I haven’t been very political in the past. But I started getting involved in street art maybe a little after Obama’s first term. I have opinions and street art is a way to get your message out there and influence people when you don’t have a lot of money.

 

It’s very hard to ignore what’s happening now, so as soon as Donald Trump put his hat in the ring, I was like, “I need to say something about this. I just cannot not do anything."  

​

 

What inspires your artwork?

I am inspired by my environment I listen to the news and pay attention to what’s going on. Eventually when the visual screams louder I need to put it down and create it, put it down on paper. Something tangible, I’m not gonna say I won't ever sit down and paint a flower but right now I am politically driven or worldly driven. I like topics that are better than just making a pattern for your wall. 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What about President Trump?

 

Pretty much everything that came out of his mouth inspired me. It was the ‘I can't believe he was saying that.’ The racism and sex stuff. He’s your drunk macho friend running his mouth at the bar. Except he's running it to the world and it’s horrifying. I just wanted to make people laugh at him. In Chicago we shut down his rally and I like to think I was a small part of that. 

 

What did you want to accomplish with these particular pieces?

 

I think the obvious thing I wanted to accomplish was for people to laugh at him and for him not be our president. I am inspired to make something to combat what he's talking about. Recently, I am on a North Korea kick. The whole "we’re gonna blow you up" and just tired of Trump being all trigger happy. 

​

 

Do you think your artwork benefits the public during difficult political times?

 

I don’t know if it does or doesn't benefit anyone. I view it as if I am somewhere other than the United states and I am taking to someone about the horrendous president that we have, I want to have a clear conscious that I was not a part of that and I was doing everything I could to prevent that. I can't battle his wallet, I can only use the ideas I have and my own talent. At the very least I want a clear conscious and say, "Hey, I was against this from the get-go and I tried to stop it."

​

 

How has the city of Chicago influenced you as an artist?

 

I lived in New York and I really established myself enough to be a working artist. It was a hustle every day, but it is essentially where I learned how to do the thing that I do. Moving here to Chicago, I wanted to do more personal work. I wanted to experience gallery stuff a little bit more.

 

With minimal effort, I pasted something up and I woke up to see that it was on the cover of the Chicago Reader. It literally felt like I put something up and I had a gallery show a few months later. And in New York, that just wouldn’t happen. You put something up and it’s just not going to be noticed.

 

Chicago has given me some insight of just how the whole process works--being on camera doing interviews with the news--and Chicago has embraced me. I’ve met some great contacts here, and it’s given me a lot to think about.

 

Where does your career go from here?

 

I’m at a transitional phase where I’m looking for more collaboration. There are a couple opportunities to be a designer, a couple of opportunities to be a building mural painter. I want to remove myself from being full-time freelance and start really focusing on my own work, for me.

 

Do you see yourself separating from the political art scene?

No, I think people should walk through life being who they are, with the opinions that they have. I feel like if there’s someone who has a huge problem with my opinions about Donald Trump, I’m most likely not going to want to work with them.