Rebecca Fishsticks / Hi Tiger! by Jeff McMillan

Jeff McMillan was born in October of 1977 in San Jose, CA. He attended the Academy of Art in San Francisco and graduated from Art Center College of Design in  Pasadena in 2004. He now lives and works in Long Beach CA with his wonderful wife Liv, Daughter Elsa and a two disobedient Siamese cats.  B.F.A in Illustration, Art Center College of Design. Exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Canada and Mexico. Favorite Clients- Nike, Mircosoft, Mountain Dew, Redscout, Greek Theatre Los Angeles, Mike Tyson, Hal Riney, RVCA, 72 and Sunny and Disney. Here for his debut RUN we welcome Suggestivism artist Jeff McMillan for Rebecca Fishsticks/Hi Tiger! Read on below as Jeff walks us through his debut in this installment of the 1xRUN Thru Interview…

1xRun: Tell us a bit about the original, when was Rebecca Fishsticks / Hi-Tiger drawn and created? Is the original still for sale?

Jeff McMillan:  The piece was created in 2011, the original sold already.I used acrylics and painted it on gessoed bristol paper.

1xRun: Tell us how the idea came about for Rebecca Tiger?

Jeff McMillan:  I liked the idea of these tribalistic/ nomadic women with cool looking face paint going on, paired up with an animal.   I wanted to keep it very free and tied to nature.  I started to pull references that I like from all over the place and ended up with the pieces.   There’s script that I use that is flipped and turned upside down that works as a design/ graphic on the portrait of the woman, and there’s a half circle element above the animal that signifies nature and understanding.  The script has no secret meaning really, when asked I say it generally means “the theme is there’s no theme”   This series is something I’ve been thinking about for awhile now in between projects.  I’d love to go bigger, better and develop it more in the future, maybe find a place to show it, who knows….  These were all little test studies that I was doing at the time that turned out cool.  After the first one was completed,  I liked how the two paired up, they seem unified and happy to me.

1xRUN: Tell us a bit about the series that this piece was a part of?

Jeff McMillan: Well, this is the first one in this series, so it’s a special one to me.  I have some plans for this series down the line. But right now, they’re just portrait studies that found a home on some cool platforms.  I freelance for RVCA.  I’m in their anp program.  These paintings and the rest of the series were used as shirts graphics.  So, maybe you’ll see them floating around on shirts somewhere.

1xRun: Tell us a bit about the execution for this piece?

Jeff McMillan:  I prep the bristol paper with gesso and then paint it a light aqua blue-ish color on it.  These paintings are fun to do because everything is color keyed to the background color.  The paint mixed up on the palette looks incredible different than when it’s on the painting reacting to the colors around it.  I like messing with color and seeing how one effects the other.  I let a lot of the blue background come through, if you were to put it in Photoshop and delete the background, you see how thinly it’s painted.  It’s just the lights that are really thick, and they’re still not that light on the palette.  It’s cool.

1xRun: How long did the piece take to create from start to finish?

Jeff McMillan:   Two days, one day for each.

1xRun: What is unique about this piece? Why should people buy this print?

Jeff McMillan:  It was the first one I did in this series, so it got the ball rolling with this idea.  Man, I don’t know.  If you like women in face paint and tigers, have at it.

1xRun: Describe Rebecca Fishsticks/ Hi Tiger! in one gut reaction word for us.

Jeff McMillan:  Hunter

1xRun: When did you first start making art?  What was your first piece?
Jeff McMillan: I would say 5 years old. Not sure, maybe a drawing of a transformer

1xRun: What artists inspired you early on?    
Jeff McMillan:  Frank Kozik, Sebastian Kruger, Robert Williams, Derek Riggs: the guy that did the iron maiden and slayer albums covers.

1xRun: What artists inspire you now?
Jeff McMillan: In no particular order- David Byrne, Brian Eno, Barry Mcgee, Neo Rauch, Alex Gross, The Clayton Brothers, Honore Dumier, Phil Hale, Eric White, Cal schenkel, Marc Davis, Nicolai Fechin, Frans Hals, Caravaggio, John Singer Sargent, way too many to name

1xRun: If you could collaborate with any living artist who would it be and why?
Jeff McMillan: T bone Broersma,  because it would a entertaining show.

1xRun: If you could collaborate with any deceased artists who would it be and why?    
Jeff McMillan: Whitney Houston, would’ve been cool to play bass for her band.

1xRun: What was the first piece of art that you bought? Do you still have it?
Jeff McMillan:  Andrew Brandou piece, the first significant piece my wife and I bought together,  Yes still have it, of course!

1xRun: What was the last piece of art that you bought?
Jeff McMillan: Thomas Lee Bakofsky “Warmest Beer in Town” painting

1xRun:    What else do you have in the works?
Jeff McMillan:  Coming up this summer and as we speak or as I type 10 year ISM anniversary show at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, Pangeaseed Traveling west coast Shark Art Tour (various galleries), Curating a couple museum shows with Nathan Spoor next year and the year after.  Several different projects and collaborations and a lot freelance work.

1xRun: Where else can people find you?
Jeff McMillan:  Website – Facebook – Twitter – Flickr –

-1xRUN