Aside from sharing his history with students at the Ateneo de Manila University.

MANILA, Philippines — When Taiwan-born artist James Jean was here in the country last year, he was at the center of blockbuster signings held at the Fully Booked High Street in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

Jean, who became famous for his sophisticated covers for Bill Willingham’s comic book series “Fables”, says that that visit last year gave him a great glimpse into the Philippines. Aside from meeting his fans, Jean also got to visit Pagsanjan Falls and have some of the country’s street food, including the infamous balut.

Just recently, Jean got a look at another side of Philippine life as Fully Booked brought him back to the country for two rare talks at the De La Salle University and at the Ateneo de Manila University, where he talked about his work, his history, and his process.

“It’s my own agenda of brainwashing the students. It’s just a plain, honest explanation of my history,” he explains with a laugh. “I’ve talked to schools before a bunch of times. I’m asked a lot to speak but I don’t agree often to speak. This isn’t something I’ve done a lot over the past years.”

S**T PORTFOLIO

Certainly, Jean has a lot of history he can share with any young artist willing to listen.

The 31-year-old artist grew up in a self-described “artistic vacuum” in New Jersey, United States, where he would indulge his compulsion to draw through the comics that were easily available to him at the time.

When he began pursuing a degree in Fine Arts at New York’s The School of Visual Arts, he went into the course armed only with what he calls a “s**t portfolio”.

Obviously, that didn’t stop him from picking up the skills to come up with much more accomplished work.

Jean began doing comic book covers for Vertigo – the company that publishes “Fables” – in 2001, and in the space of three years, he would regularly honored by the Eisner and Harvey Awards, which recognizes artistic achievement in the comic book industry. In fact, the Harvey Awards named Jean “Best Cover Artist” for three consecutive years, from 2005 to 2007.

If there’s one thing he wanted the students to pick up from his talks, says Jean, is that they have the power to overcome their own “s**t portfolios” and have successful careers in illustrating and the art world.

“It’s not what art school puts in you but what you put in art school. When I was in art school, it was really evident who was definitely not going to make it as an artist. It was those people who felt like it was the obligation of the school to somehow implant within them the ability and the technique to make stuff. Those who succeeded were always the ones who were seeking stuff, reaching at it, and not having any sense of entitlement. Those were the people who ended up making it,” he says.

WHERE HIS ART CAN GO

Jean certainly has been walking the talk. Even with all the accolades, several books (“Process Recess”, “Rift”, and “Rebus”), a sold-out first show, and several recognitions under his belt, he continues to explore and learn the many different ways his art can go.

He says his most recent works have taken a more marked turn for the expressive, a definite departure from the illustrations he did for “Fables” and for his entry into the art scene. But rather than seeing it as a departure, Jean insists that it’s merely a return to his roots.

“Very early on, when I was in art school, I was already doing a lot of expressive art. They were just very small scale. I think I’m just staying true to what I’ve always been interested in, which is just making images and exploring the whole range of painting. People don’t expect me to do commercial artwork anymore,” he says.

Of course, this new direction has caused some consternation for some of his fans, who have become used to the less abstract works he did for “Fables”. But Jean says that as much as he hopes his audience grows along with him, his own personal growth as an artist still remains his biggest focus.

“The challenge really is to create interesting work and remain interested in the work rather than finding the next big project or trying to find the next PR opportunity,” he says. “I feel like some people might have lost interest. But my hope is that my audience grows with me and they stay interested or they see something new that excites them.”

As when he first started out, Jean says that he stands firm on what he said a year ago – that he intends to create art that he is passionate about. Whether it takes the form of comic books or triptychs doesn’t really matter.

“For me, it hasn’t really changed that much even though my audience might be confused by some of the things that I do. For me it’s all interesting. It’s all the same, the exploration of the subconscious and contemporary culture and art history. I’m making a collage of all those things and turning it into a kind of landscape of the subconscious,” he explains.

What is most important, he says, is that one’s art conveys a sense of honesty and authenticity.

“Now I’m working from scratch and exploring painting and learning about it and what it is that I have to say as a painter. That journey is less predictable and more mysterious. It’s probably more honest, in a way. That’s what I’m after, in the end, some kind of truth in who I am as an artist,” he ends.