Hollow (aka Jonny Farris): What Is An Artist?
Working as Hollow, Jonny Farris is an artist from the San Fernando Valley who specialises in anything he wants. He is best known for the portraits in which he captures a subject’s energy and essence. He hopes to help people through the arts, and to relate and inspire. Hollow stands for Hovering Over Lament, Later Over Worlds. This saying expresses the message Jonny would like to spread, that in order to be of this world you must be of yourself. Later: world domination.
We sat down to have a chat about Jonny’s career and his grand dreams for the future when we were both artists in residence at Chateau Orquevaux, France.
What is an artist?
An artist is someone who can’t wake up in the morning or go about their day without doing what they love — which for me is either painting, writing, making music, drawing — and not look at it as a job. And, sure it can be a job, but it’s also what you love. And I believe you could be an artist and do anything. Like you could be a doctor and that could be a form of art. So as long as you wake up in the morning and do what you do best and what you want to do, then that makes you an artist.
So what makes Jonny an artist?
I can’t live without it. Probably that. I literally cannot live without doing this thing.
So you suffer when you can’t make art?
A little bit, yeah. If it’s not suffering, it’s a form of anxiety.
So tell me about something that you’re working on, something new or something that you have an idea for.
Well, this right now, right in front of you. As you know, I’ve primarily just been painting these window paintings, with characters involved in symbolism. So right now I’m just working on somebody saying hi out the window. In general they’re usually night-time paintings and a little darker, but recently I decided to paint more bright.
Was that a conscious decision or did it just happen?
It just kind of happened because I painted this one that you see right here, which has the room that has all this light, and it almost looks like it’s daytime while the other half is more sombre.
Yeah, I love it.
Yeah, there’s no malice about it. There no morbid feeling about it, you know? It’s nice.
It’s hopeful. Like a new start.
Yeah, very. And you can see a direct comparison between them.
What do windows represent for you?
Well, first I got the idea from a painting called Femme Écrivant, which means woman writing, and it’s by Picasso, and it’s a woman in a window, but it’s so abstract and so good that I started just painting one window. And then after that, it was just a lot more.
So Picasso is an influence?
Yeah. Picasso, Basquiat and Pollock. So if you can notice in the smaller sketches, I dripped stars the way Pollock would drip his paint. He’s more complex with it. I just literally flick my fingers. And then I like Basquiat’s stamina a lot. He was just able to create and create and create. And I feel like that’s something I can do. Just keep creating.
And what’s the inspiration for this new one?
It’s just a person saying hi at my window. It’s going to be a girl saying hi, outside the window. And it’s going to be a very basic face. It’s just going to be round, and the distinguishing feature is going to be face piercings. So in a way it’s probably based on my [former] girlfriend, and her saying hi to me outside of the window. Or maybe goodbye.
Do you always have an idea before you start? Or do you start painting and let an idea come to you?
It works in many ways. So some of these ones were planned, but it’s really fun to do pieces like this where you don’t know what comes out of it. Which is what I’m doing right now.
What goals do you have for the future artistically and professionally?
I don’t want to sound cocky when I say this, but I want to be one of the greats. Yeah, I want to be one of the greats. Coz man, I look at these fools before me and they were so good. And I’m pretty good I think, but not only that, there are certain things that I really want to do. Like I want to get my grandma’s name out there into museums.
Your grandma’s name?
Yeah, Hernandez, my dad’s name. There’s a museum in Guadalajara, next to their hometown, and I want to put a portrait of them in there. I want to paint the people that I love very much. I want them to live forever and I want them to have their own spot in a museum. So, that portrait I showed you of my girlfriend? That one’s going to go into a museum for sure. And I tell them, I’m gonna make you guys live forever.
Do you have a step-by-step plan for how you’re going to achieve that goal?
Nope. Well, being here, I’ve come to realise that this was very good for me. I was able to hone in on my style and perfect some sort of craft, but not only that, talking to Beulah I learned there are ways to go about this. So I have a handful of paintings at home that are big and I just want to start calling galleries and I want to get a grant. I still don’t fully know what that is, but I want to get a couple of those possibly. And I dunno, I just got to keep moving and doing stuff and putting stuff everywhere, you know.
So tell me about someone who inspired you artistically. Picasso, Pollock and Basquiat as painters, but has anyone else personally inspired or motivated you?
Yeah. My friend Bijan. He’s like my brother, he is pretty much my brother. We’re not related, but that fool’s got my back and I’ve got his, no matter what. And he’s been a really good friend and we helped each other out through tough times, and we keep telling each other there’s good things coming for us and we’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing.
Is he an artist as well?
He is, he’s a filmmaker. And he was so stressed out for the past couple of weeks, making a film for a film festival. And he won, he won first place. He won best short film and he won the best overall film. And this fool was stressing out so much. And for good reason, he was doing a lot of fricking work. You know, he was putting his work over himself, which is… in a way I think it’s noble.
That’s what artists do.
Exactly. And it paid off, it really paid off. But there’s so many moments of doubt that I remember coming from him about what he was doing, and it literally all worked out. And also my dad too. He never liked my rap music, but he always told me to keep painting.
Why didn’t he like your rap music?
He was like a boomer. He liked Frank Sinatra and stuff. Yeah, he was a good guy.
But he did love your paintings?
He always told me to keep painting. He bought me my first easel in 2020, when I was 22 years old. That’s when I really started painting.
So what triggered that? Was it a specific event in your life or something else?
In a way it was a bunch of things, but I just started studying more art, and I really liked the painters and I was like… well, there’s two things. One was Jim Morrison. I really liked Jim Morrison and his poetry. I would sketch in the poetry books, just sketch weird things. And then one day I had cardboard and papers and I papier-mâchéd a painting. And I only had a small tube of blue paint, so I broke a pen to use the ink. And I think the painting turned out pretty good. And I have it hung up still. That was back in 2019.
Do you have a picture of it that you could share with me?
Sure. It’s called “Making Music”.
And before that you were rapping?
Yes, I was rapping and I was writing novels. I used to do a lot of slam poetry, so that was a good transition into rapping.
You do slam poetry? You write your own stuff?
For sure. Yeah, definitely. Always reading my own stuff.
What defines slam poetry, how is it different to poetry?
Poetry is just the words. Slam poetry is when you get the words and you slam them on the ground until… well, it’s more of an expression of the poetry written.
It has to be performed, right?
Slam poetry is definitely performance. Otherwise you just have words.
What kind of training have you had as an artist? Have you had any formal training or mentorship, or are you self-taught?
You know, I wish I had training, that sounds sick. To have like a sensei, you know what I mean? So fire.
I love that. An art sensei.
But nah, I haven’t had much training. I guess I teach myself.
Just by doing?
Yeah. And you see, like we discussed about the people that inspire me, you just see them do it and you just kinda do it. And here’s the thing, we’re not all the same, so if you try to do something it’ll come out totally different. And honestly, coz I would always say so-and-so is my teacher, and I was talking about Picasso or Basquiat, and in a way they were because I read their quotes, I read their stories, I read what they had to say about painting. For example Picasso says good artists copy, great artists steal. I’ve stolen a lot from that fool, you know what I mean? But in a way, I made it my own. Just like he used to. So I just read about painting and tried to figure it out on my own, and that’s how I got to what I have now, I suppose.
How did you hear about this residency?
One of my favourite artists went to this residency. Her name is Elinor Shapiro, and she’s really, really good. She does really good faces. And she actually worked here for a little bit which is dope, and I just heard about it through her, and I applied a while ago. Probably before the pandemic. How about you?
Some friends of mine live near here, about a 20 minute drive away. I was visiting them a couple of years ago and they told me about it. And I just kind of kept it in the back of my mind. And then I applied in early 2021.
That’s what’s up. I’m glad you applied, you’re pretty cool.
Me too, I’m really glad that I applied because it’s so out of my comfort zone.
Really?
It is, it is. But at the same time, it’s also really inside my comfort zone, to be surrounded by such talented, creative people. It’s a delight. Because I don’t have that in my day to day life. I don’t have artistic people, so it’s wonderful to be around you guys.
Yeah, it really is wonderful to be here, because like you said, I’m not around artistic people either. It’s kind of a bummer, but yeah.
Yeah, and you just kind of feed off each other. There’s this huge support and encouragement and acceptance that everyone has. It’s beautiful. It’s fucking beautiful.
Thank you.
So finally, what advice would you have for someone who was just starting to explore their artistic side? What would you tell them? What would you tell yourself when you were first starting out?
Don’t stop. Do not stop. If you get criticised, or feel hurt from someone else’s opinion, keep moving. Do not stop, because what you do right now will build up into your future. So do not stop.
