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I stumbled upon Sarah Joncas' work and immediately wondered why I hadn't seen it before. It was beautiful and stunning, and I had to know all about it. Glubdub: Can you tell me how you've developed your style and who some of your influences are...even ones outside the art world.
Sarah Joncas: Personally, I can very clearly see where a lot of my influences have come from, many of which impacted the development of my style. I know as a child and teen, I was looking forward to getting into graphic novels, illustration or animation as a career, so a lot of my visual interests surrounded those types of fields.” 
GD: What was is it about your childhood that pushed or pulled you in this direction. Was there something you were running towards, or even running away from, that made you turn to art as a way to define who you are?
SJ: Really, the only thing that pushed my interest in the fields of more design-oriented art careers was my personal motivations. I always loved to draw, and I guess the sort of fantastical and imaginative worlds I was witness to within media environments, such as cartoons or comics, just appealed to me at that age. Eventually I found out that a lot of the animators and illustrators of such careers worked in teams, often through the direction of someone else’s vision, and I knew it wasn’t for me. After discovering this sometime in my teens, I started taking what I enjoyed so much from those sources and expanded on it in ways that appealed to my own feelings and experiences. But, overall, I believe my thinking process is very much a visual experience as well – only made sense to embrace it, even if I wasn’t fully aware of why at 3 or 4 years old.
SJ: When anime started hitting North America significantly in the 90's, it too became apart of my regular digest; not to mention all the Japanese video games... Eventually I grew out of those phases, but let the style linger on - the kind of elongated proportions, big eyes and the dramatic narratives.

GD: I totally see where a lot if these influences come into play as far as the way your work looks, but what about the ideas that you're painting. Where do they come from? What is your work commenting on and where are the themes behind your work come from.
SJ: In retrospect, the themes behind my work have changed quite dramatically by the particular stages and events in my own life. Though I do intake and project a lot of my imagery through personal experience, I also take from a lot of outside sources, such as contemporary and historical concerns. In some instances, it becomes a way for me to engage with what I learn and try understanding it from a more psychological standpoint. Rather than just having book knowledge, I can use this process as a way of finding out more about myself.
SJ: Currently, music is probably the largest factor in my work! A lot of the time I end up naming my paintings after songs or lyrics I feel relate to my themes; bands such as Pink Floyd, Portishead, Radiohead, NIN, Tool, APC etc.

GD: Is it the words of these bands that you're pulling ideas from, or you inspired by the music, and the words are really just a vehicle for titling the painting? Do you find that the music helps create a mood or draw the blinds on the rest of the world, and help you escape into your work?
SJ: It’s never really just the words or just the melody, but everything at once; and I don’t doubt that even my mood at that particular time will be bias on what tunes impact my work. The other motivator of music is the time-based aspect – like my interest in film and animation, I enjoy imaging my characters in narratives or movement. Music is something of a lubricant to that – emotional and provocative; certainly a process of escaping into my fantasies, or at least escaping reality, haha.

SJ: There have also been phases of particular artist's work I've grown attached too. Some of those include Ralph Steadman, Frida Kahlo, Joe Sorren, Viner, Amano, Hussar etc.
GD: I like what you say here because like my favorite bands, my favorite artists have periods of work that really hit home with me. What do you think it is about these potent phases of your favorite artist’s work that inspires your work so much? Is there some common thread between them, and if so what is it?
SJ: Looking back now, it was really a more time/place scenario, running into them haphazardly and choosing to investigate further. Often it was in the aesthetic elements of their artwork – at a time when I’m playing around with inks and line-work, I stumble upon Steadman. Or when I’m focusing on more dark-religious subject matter, I happen to find Hussar. Most of all though, I believe it was seeing artists who did have a distinctly “illustrative” style making a living in the art world - was a glimpse of hope that I could find sanctuary in this world; something to escape the undertow of the service industry and produce work that was honest to me. They became like role models. SJ: Other things that have significant effect on my work are mass media, specifically film - lately more film noir, though my list of favourite films could go on a while too long…

GD: Are there any pieces you've worked on that you can see a direct link between how a film made you feel or what it made you think about, and the inspiration behind that piece?
SJ: I very recent work of mine called “Ghosts” was actually inspired by the film “Requiem for a Dream”. There was a particular scene involving a girl screaming beneath the water of a bathtub and something about it struck me; the private space of the bathroom, her agony/venting, and my already invested attachment with water. Once I had the work envisioned, it wasn’t really dealing with the sort of downward-spiral narrative of the film, but the music and imagery certainly became a potent starting point… And to credit that, as well as hint at my personal narrative, I named the work after one of the songs from the film.
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