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About Me
Aloha!
I'M Jonerz
Yes its a nickname. Somehow Jonathan became Jonerz (pronounced Jon-urz) when I was little. My brothers and I were always calling each other various names, some good and some bad, and this one stuck on me. I'm a pop surrealistic artist with flavors of new school and surf art mixed in living on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
Originally from the Rocky mountains of Colorado, I traded the snow for the surf when I was a teenager and have called Maui home for over 26 years. I met my best friend Lynn here shortly after the move. We learned to surf together, did art together and pretty much everything else. After getting married in 1999 we started our life together and our family grew. Now we have three awesome boys; Sky, Taze and Reece. We have also adopted a small zoo of critters including a Shorkie named Happy, a Pug named Smiley, a Persian cat named Pud Pud, an Axolotl called Fillipe, a tiger salamander called Jaba and bunch of fish.
Art took a back seat for many years in the roller coaster of life and raising our boys but in the end it has prevailed. I have worn many hats in my journey to become a working artist from waiting tables to mortgages to owning a landscaping company. For the last 10 years however my aim has been to turn my passion into my profession.
Starting out at festivals and local events turned into weekly shows. As the interest in my art built, soon I got noticed by an international Gallery in Wailea and showed for some time there. That turned into an Artist in Residency at the Four Seasons Resort Wailea which lead to a number of interesting commission works done for guests of the resort including two for funny man Adam Sandler and his daughters. My bright eyed girls and whimsical creatures have sold to collectors and colorful people all over the world from my little island in the sunny Pacific.
My wife and I opened Hawaii's first mobile boutique and gallery in 2015 called Jonerz and the Sparrow which then led to then opening our fist little brick and mortar boutique called Heart in Paia in 2017. I've developed quite a love for large scale street art installations and have been able finish a couple of them in the last few years and wish to do more in the future. Lynn and I closed our little shop in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and so here I am reinventing once again here online. I hope you enjoy my site and my work and I look forward to meeting you someday in person hopefully without a mask so I can see your smiling face. Till then, Aloha!
My art business has been designated as a "Trusted Art Seller" with The Art Storefronts Organization, which means you can shop with confidence, and know that I stand behind the quality and value of my products.
Inspiration
I draw ideas from all over. Growing up in the Rocky Mountains until 18 and being part of the snowboard culture and mountain bike scene introduced me to colorful and sometimes weird skateboard art and alternative music based art. Moving to Hawaii in 1995, I became surrounded by the ocean, waves, sand, turtles, whales, dolphins, tropical flowers, and of course the amazing surfing art culture of this place. Hawaiian words and their meanings fascinate me so many time I try to incorporate them into the title I give each piece. Artist that have influenced my work the most through the years have been pop surreal artist Margaret Keane, Mark Ryden, and Caia Koopman. I also love the Art Deco work of Alphonse Mucha as well as the street art and graffiti of Banksy and Shepard Fairey as well as many others in that genre. Recently as I branch off into large work, the work of Peter Terrin and Jean-Michel Basquiat are on my mind a lot these days so stay tuned.
Techniques
For years most of my original works have been more of an illustrative style using acrylic paint and pigment inks on wood panels. Ive always loved the way the wood grain shows through giving them a more unique organic look. but ive been known to paint with coffee and house paint too in the past as well as experimenting with wheat pasting and spray paint for large mural works. In addition to utilizing more modern digital methods like Procreate and Photoshop, my new passion technique is using heavy bodies acrylic painting with painting knives on very large canvases. I am really loving working big right now.
career highlights
1995- Scholarship to Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass CO for Ceramics
2010- officially began professional art Career specializing in Pop Surrealistic Art.
2011- Accepted by NaPua Gallery in Wailea Maui as a new upcoming artist.
2014-2016 Artist in Residence at Four seasons Resort Wailea Maui.
2015- Opened Maui’s first mobile boutique and gallery called Jonerz and the Sparrow with my wife Lynn
2017- Finished 100’ x 13’ mural on Lokelani School in Kihei Maui.
2017- 2020 Opened Heart in Paia, a small local art and gift shop in Paia Maui.
2021- THE BEST IS COMING.
