Jasmine Becket-Griffith Interview :
Global Location: US
URL: http://www.strangeling.com
Shop: http://www.zazzle.com/strangeling

Jasmine Becket-Griffith, also known as Strangeling, lives In beautiful Celebration, Florida with her husband Matt and her two cats Mama Wolf and Tigrillo. Since 1997 she has been working as a full time artist creating her own visions of this world and others with acrylic paints & brushes. She love to read fantasy, horror, historical fiction and to traveling to visit beautiful places around the world. Weary of the mundane world Jasmine has drawn on influences’ to create  a world of fantasy, and “ this place a more magical planet”. Its in this world you’ll find big eyed fairies frolicking, whimsical  mermaids thriving, gothic dragons, vampires co- habiting and Rococo / Victoriana vampires. 

AP: At what age did you start to get into painting and did you have formal training or are you a self-taught painter?
JBG:  I’ve pretty much always painted.  I started as a kid of course, like all kids do, colouring books & paint by number stuff when I was little.  I never really stopped though, it seems like a lot of kids kind of grow out of it after a while but I just kept painting.  I started selling my work in Elementary school, to the other kids, to the teachers, and sometimes I’d go door-to-door in the neighborhood trying to sell neighbors pictures of birds that I had drawn.  In middle school, when I was about 12, I started taking painting more seriously - I bought the whole Bob Ross “Joy of Painting” sets with money I won in the spelling bee, and started trying to teach myself how to paint more realistically.  I really loved Bob Ross.  By the time I was 17 I had started my website and was already making a bit of money as an artist.  I did get a degree in painting, but it was primarily from Independent Study courses at home.   I was in my early twenties when it became a fulltime job, and shortly thereafter I hired my husband and other family members to work fulltime for me as assistants in various capacities.
 

AP: You’re an extremely prolific full-time painter; what is your medium of choice? And how long from inception to completion does one of your artworks take?
JBG:   I work exclusively in acrylic paints, typically on either wood, canvas, or masonite panels.  I do it the simple, old-fashioned way - just paints, water, paintbrush & hands.  I am a very compulsive painter and spend most of my time painting.  Most paintings I finish in a single day, usually about 14-18 hours.  Sometimes with smaller paintings I’ll finish a couple in one day, or sometimes with larger paintings I’ll spend two days working on them.  I live in my head a lot and have a lot of paintings preconceived up there, so by the time I actually sit down at the desk with the blank canvas I pretty much have it all laid out in my mind.

AP: On your website you have a wonderful section “Posing for reference photos”; when you were little did you play dress up and if so what was your favorite dress up character?
JBG: I have always had a very overactive imagination, and very fun sisters my own age, so we played a lot of dress-up!  We often played that we were the three faeries from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (I was Flora, my sisters were Fauna and Merriweather).  Sometimes we’d pretend we were kitties, or runaway “nature” children.  We’d turn the dining room table into a castle and be royalty.  There was this old black lace shawl I used to wear when I was about five years old - I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world and swore I’d get married in it.  A dozen years later - I did!

 
AP: In early 2009 you started to collaborate with Disney to create your own versions of classic Disney characters, how did this come about ? Which is your all time favorite Disney Character?
JBG: I was just approached out of the blue one morning (through the Hamilton Collection) and asked if I would be interested in doing some co-branded Jasmine Becket-Griffith/Disney projects.  I said YES!  I’m a huge Disney nerd, I live right across the street from Disney World and I was incredibly stoked to be a part of it all.  Let me see - I would say that my all time favourite Disney character is Mr. Toad!  Even though I’m not that much like him really, for some reason I really identify with Mr. Toad.  I have an enormous statue of him in my living room, and sometimes go by “Jasmine Toad”.

AP: Many of your wide-eyed, whimsical characters are based on fables and fairytales, and many on gothic depictions of vampiresses, nobility and mythological creatures; If you had to pick your favorite genre what would it be and why?
JBG: Oh man, I don’t know if I could!  I like anything out of the ordinary.  While I really do enjoy looking at realistic depictions of the world (some of my favourite paintings are portraits, well done still lifes, etc.) when it comes to my own work I just want to paint how I’d prefer the world to be, a little more beautiful, a little more dangerous.  I like to paint things that hint at a story or insinuate there is more going on than we can see.  I’ll sometimes start off just painting a female figure, and then I look down at the canvas again and see that I have painted wings on her, or instead of the cat I intended I seem to have made her holding a giant frog, hehe.  I also like to include a lot of historical references in my work, it gives the illusion of permanence in pieces that really just capture a fleeting moment.  

 
AP: You’re known worldwide as your pseudonym; Strangeling - what are the origins of the name?
JBG: Ha!  When I was a teenager my husband gave me the nickname - he says it’s a combination of the words “strange” and “changeling” (he felt that I didn’t ever quite in to my natural environment, I think).  When I was a senior in high school I was setting up my first art website and was at a loss as to what “dotcom” to choose - and he suggested my nickname “strangeling” - and it just kinda stuck!

AP: You’ve got over ten thousand fans on Facebook alone. How have you grown such a large fanbase over the past ten years? And what do you do to engage with your fans?
JBG: I’ve never really planned it out - it just kind of grew naturally, very grass-roots.  Basically I just keep painting and hoping that some people at least will get some enjoyment out of the things I’ve created.  Places like Facebook are fun for me because I can post my new art every day and have an immediate and usually encouraging reaction from folks online.   I think a lot of people like the fact that I’ve always got a sense of momentum going on, I am very compulsive in my work and that means my friends & fans get to see something new from me just about every day, which is fun!  It really makes me happy whenever somebody takes time out of their day just to stop by and say that they like what I did that day.  Sometimes painting all day is a bit lonely so I really do think of it as my primary social interaction as well.

AP: You’ve been featured in many books but I can see you writing your own stories filled with fantastic adventures, is this something that the future may hold for you ? And what premise would the book take on?

JBG: Actually I’m working on a couple of projects where I get to be more involved with that side of creation, and I’m very excited about it all.  Definitely along the similar gothic/fantasy themes of my paintings.  One project is particularly massive and encompassing - darned non-disclosure agreement…. you’ll see!

AP: Thank you for taking the time to share with us the insight into your world.

JBG:  And thank you for creating such a great platform for us artists to show our stuff to the world!

AP: Thank you for taking the time to share with us the insight into your world.