Jamie House, our collaborator for Saturna, is a multimedia artist based in Leeds, UK. At once a graphic designer, visual artist, radio host, and DJ, Jamie is a multi-hyphenate creative who experiments across multiple mediums.

With an esoteric perspective and tongue-in-cheek view of the art world, Jamie's work explores transpersonal theory and the subconscious. 

Part of the Endless Studio collective, Jamie and his cohorts are heavily involved in the music industry, designing and producing music videos, album covers, and logos for artists such as Guy Sigworth and Ross From Friends.

Endless Studio is based in Hope Foundry, the headquarters for charity MAP, where they operate their studio while contributing as educators for the charity. MAP, raising funds through its fantastically fun Cosmic Slop events, educates young people who don't have access to the mainstream school system in the creative arts. 

Blue Nude: When did your artistic journey begin - how did you discover your love of the arts?

Jamie House: I discovered my love of the arts by being alive! The two are inseparable, it's one of the many things that make us human.

BN: Who are your favourite artists?

JH: My favourite artists fluctuate like all good things, but some people I hold close to my heart are Joan Miró (his use of a consistent symbolic language and his interpretations of mysticism), Dima Rabik (for his use of art as mediation and alchemical process), and William Blake for his insightful interpretations of life and death through both poetry and visual art. A photo of Pamela Coleman Smith watches over me as I work; she is the artist behind the rider-waite tarot deck and her art and her approach to life inspire me equally. I find it hard to separate all the types of art, so it would also be worth mentioning Ursula K. Le Guin for her unique ability to present issues of a higher nature through gripping and relatable prose, and Beverly Glenn Copeland for her hauntingly beautiful music, again bringing a glimpse of the unseen into the physical realm. I also love every single person throughout history who has ever written something funny or inspiring on a wall which they weren't supposed to be decorating.

BN: What themes do you like to explore with your art?

JH: My art for a while now has all revolved around trying to translate ungraspable unspeakable concepts into relatable approachable manifestations, using any means necessary: paint, ink, projection, duct tape, pizza, fake adverts, conversations, whatever. I am fascinated by global spiritual history and the nodes in which our cacophony of interpretations of the mystical meet. I don't really understand how it all works, so making art and being present helps me to connect the dots. I see myself as a transpersonal artist.

BN: What is your favourite colour?

JH: My favourite colours are white and black, as depending on whether it is light or print based, each one contains all of the information of all the other colours, separated neatly into dualistic opposites. For me nothing beats seeing light naturally diffracted into a spectrum. That's a mega pretentious answer though, so if i actually had to choose one then I love blue.

BN: How does music play a role in your art? What are you currently listening to?

JH: One of our studio tag-lines is 'as far as the eye can hear' which I think sums up how inseparable my views music and art are. Music is love, love is art, art is music. I love the crossover and the idea that reality is all vibrations, so if you create vibrations within a thing made of vibrations, then you are truly bringing the macro down into the micro. In that respect the universal laws apply and it's all about the spaces in between no matter what frequency of vibration you are working with! Vanishing Twin are my most listened to band at the moment, because, well, just listen to them! The Age Of Immunology album was eerily timed (released roughly two months before lockdown) and it has kept me going through this time, providing endless inspiration (their artwork is ace too). Comfort Peter are my favourite band of all time though.

BN: What is something unexpected that inspires you?

JH: I have a large collection of images I have taken whilst [investigating] 'things found on the floor' (short book coming soon) which provides me with endless amusement and inspiration. When you find an odd thing on the floor there is always an automatic imagination process that accompanies it, eg. who dropped that? What is it? Why did they leave it there? Who eats a creme egg with the wrapper on!? This kind of stuff is priceless.

BN: How has the natural world informed your work?

JH: The natural world is inherently chaotic, unpredictable and present. I use this ideology in my creative process, attempting to combine it with platonic geometry to achieve some kind of melding of order and disorder (this is, as far as I'm aware, impossible, but we all love a tryer). I recently worked on some alchemical natural music videos for John Haycock and John Ellis - this process did help me to get a tad further along the spiral, but I still can't see the end.

BN: Do you find your art has hidden meaning, and if so, is this premeditated or does it come through your subconscious?

JH: My art has meaning for sure, I attempt to make it as unhidden as possible which is why I try to use accessible emoji(ish) and childlike versions of symbols. I love the idea of attempting to demystify the mystery and sharing it with as many people as are interested. To borrow from Malaclypse the Younger, we are all all living in our own reality tunnels - to some people my art may have a hidden meaning, to some it may be clear as day. If for you it is hidden and you want to find out what it is, then the good news is you only need to ask yourself.

BN: How have you found the process of creating art for textiles?

JH: I have worked with clothes a lot, both designing graphics for t-shirts and drawing on my own shoes, shirts and whatever else I can. It has always been either extremely DIY and for symbolic personal reasons or more commercial and less personal. This project has been ideal for me, it has been an enlightening process trying to make solid pieces of clothing which feel both wearable and special. It's something I have thoroughly enjoyed.

BN: What's next for you on your creative adventure?

JH: In the short term I am working on the aforementioned book of things I have found on the floor, along with an ongoing large projection mapped illustration which has been going for years; maybe one day I will be satisfied with it. Who knows. All I do know is that I quite fancy creating more creative adventures.

Keep up with Jamie at endlessstudio.co.uk, or on IG @hamie_jouse.

 Jamie working on his calligraphy motifs for Saturna.