Gerald de Jesus, (Not Starving) Artist

"Fuck all this starving artist shit."

That just about sums it up for artist Gerald de Jesus when asked whether or not he feels he traded his creative freedom in favor of a steady pay check. “Health benefits—they’re nice,” he says.

Job security, especially in today’s precarious economic climate, is something that prevails upon the minds of every American of working age today. Following one’s bliss is a luxury that most of us are not afforded, so it’s very rare to meet someone who is actually able to support themselves doing something that a) they are exceptional at and b) they actually love to do.

De Jesus is one of the lucky few. He’s been able to list “artist” as his profession since he graduated from Pasadena’s Art Center of College and Design in 1998, and he’s managed to maintain a relatively steady stream of work as a freelance artist since. His work has graced the pages of magazines, hung in galleries, and in 2009 he won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation: Production Design” for his work on Nickelodeon's cartoon series "El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera."

That’s an impressive resume for someone who works in the arts, a field virtually characterized by financial instability. But if you’ve got the talent, as does de Jesus, maybe a career in the arts isn’t such a foolish pursuit after all. According to the department of labor the median annual salary for multi-media artists and animators in California was $76,000 in 2009. Not too shabby, really, when you think of that proverbial “starving artist,” eking out a meager existence and suffering for the sake of his art.

Although De Jesus works primarily for animation studios today, he spent many years cultivating a collection of personal paintings with a style uniquely his own. Described by some as “Beatrix Potter on acid”, his paintings incorporate storybook imagery, religious references, and an off-kilter perspective on death and tragedy that leaves the audience either chuckling, crying, or scratching their heads.  Despite the gallery invitations and critical acclaim he received, De Jesus recognized early that he would not be able to sustain a decent living on his personal works alone.

Through contacts he made in art school, De Jesus found supplemental income by doing freelance work in the realm of animation. Apparently in the art world, just as in the corporate world, networking can play a significant role in one’s success. “With how shy I am,” says de Jesus, “I’m not shy around the right people! It really is the trick sometimes… I haven’t had to do an animation test in a long time. I just get calls asking, Hey, are you free? Want some work?”

Although De Jesus makes it sound just that easy, it truly isn’t. There are spurts of time when De Jesus is inundated with freelance work. The nature of his employment is fickle—the longevity of his jobs are tied to the longevity of the project. A project must always wrap, and shows go off the air. It’s the fear of not having a new project in line that has de Jesus rarely ever saying no when work is offered.

"I work really hard at keeping a good reputation in this industry. I think sometimes it will kill me, but I know in the future it will pay off with gigs. Even though it may mess with my personal life, I feel it may pay off later down the road if I don’t have work. Also I try not to burn any bridges because you never know when you’ll be working with those people again.”

Winning the 2009 Emmy in Production Design only validated all the efforts de Jesus has made in his chosen career. Currently, de Jesus has a regular gig doing background painting for another major animation studio. Recently married, he seems the picture of contentment—again, a far cry from the archetypical tortured artist with which we are all familiar. De Jesus, it can be argued,used to be one.

I have to ask the question: Gerald de Jesus, do you think you sold out?

“I don’t think I sold out. My passion is to work in some kind of creative capacity and make a decent living to raise a family. I would gladly sacrifice not doing as many personal paintings to have a steady job. I still do what I do. And without my painting skills, there’s no way I would’ve gotten any work in the animation industry.”

De Jesus pauses for a moment, then adds, “I’m really lucky.”


See more of Gerald's artwork at http://www.artofgerald.com/.