Monday entry (for 2/22/10): Artist of interest: Rockin' Jellybean

Rockin' Jellybean is a Japanese visual artist. His real name is unknown, as well as the year of his birth and no one even knows what he looks like because when he ventures out for exhibitions or is photographed, he's always seen wearing a Mexican wrestling mask. He's commented that he wears a Mexican wrestling mask to make his public appearances funnier because he doesn't ever want to take creating art and being an artist too seriously. What is known about Jellybean is that he was born in Hawaii and lived there during his childhood until moving to Kyoto, Japan. He goes by the name Rockin' Jellybean, which is an alias derived from the nickname Jellybean that his grandmother gave him early on because of the jellybean shaped birth marks he has on his shoulders.

After discovering Playboy magazine while he was in junior high school, he began drawing his own version of gorgeous buxom and often half nude female characters, whose anatomical details were highly exaggerated. Jellybean is considered a low brow artist whose work consist of scandalous gorgeous women frolicking with monsters. He associates himself and his artistic style with the custom car culture of Southern California and with other low brow artists such as Coop, Frank Kozik and Von Franco. He's credited Robert Williams as being a major influence for his artistic style of merging realism with cartoonish undertones. Jellybean doesn't sell any of his original artworks but rather creates screen-prints because he doesn't want strangers to own his original artworks. He's gone on to create Erosty Pop, where he sells retail market items with his artwork printed on them, such as towels, boxers, panties, toys, et cetera. In an interview with Juxtapoz magazine, he explained that he'd "prefer to have my drawings printed on many girls panties, rather than have my prints hanging on someone's house wall."

Rockin' Jellybean's official website.

Interview with Juxtapoz magazine.

The following images were taken from Juztapoz.com. Titles and years were not provided.