I’ve a deal with for you at the moment!  Whereas I used to be researching concepts for a maze artwork challenge, I got here throughout some actually intriguing and enjoyable mazes by an artist title Joe Wos.

I’m completely in love with the creativity, enjoyable and artistry of those mazes.

Joe has made a profession out of his illustrated comedian mazes, which he calls MazeToons.  Joe agreed to be interviewed for my weblog.  Right here is the interview.

1.  Inform us about your self.  How did you find yourself making mazes?

I began drawing once I was 4 years previous. My mother and father caught me drawing on the partitions with a crayon! They didn’t get mad, they simply taped paper up on the partitions and stated “go forward!” I’ve been drawing ever since.

I most likely began drawing mazes once I was round 6 or 7. They have been at a excessive level within the 1970’s as a development and me and my buddies would make them to problem each other. However mine have been at all times somewhat totally different, I integrated cartoons immediately into the mazes as solvable parts.

I’d take lengthy breaks from drawing mazes as my curiosity can be actually drawn elsewhere. I drew them for a short while once more in Excessive College after which once more once I was in my early 20’s. I’d drew one or two from time to time each few years. I discovered them very enjoyable. They have been a type of meditation or mindfulness for me in some ways.

Right here is Joe creating the world’s largest hand-drawn maze.

Someday, about 5 years in the past,  it simply kind of clicked that this was my distinctive area of interest. This was one thing I may do and be among the finest at. So I got down to create the world’s largest hand-drawn maze. After I set that report I made a decision I’d pursue different avenues for my mazes in books, syndication and museum exhibitions.

2.  What in your profession are you most pleased with?

I usually say my profession has had as many twist and turns as considered one of my mazes. There’s an previous saying about coming to a fork within the street and selecting the trail much less traveled, nicely once I got here to the fork within the street I made a decision to create my very own path!

3.  Describe your course of for drawing a maze.

I simply draw. That’s the total course of. I don’t sketch first I simply draw and see what occurs. I don’t have a path in thoughts or an answer. I’ll normally draw the beginning first after which work out from there. I at all times maintain a pair paths open and can shut off those I don’t use as I break up it off into new ones. It’s like constructing a neural community of connections, paths and useless ends. I normally have some thought of what theme or characters and so on.. I’m going to attract within the maze, however I don’t know what they may appear like till I draw them. It normally all comes collectively. If I make a mistake I usually begin over. I additionally normally will draw half means from the beginning after which half means from the end. I began doing this as a result of most individuals understand mazes are simpler in the event you begin from the end as a result of there’s normally just one path out from that path. So I made a decision to make mine harder in order that irrespective of which aspect you begin from, it’s technically the beginning. 

4. What maze-drawing suggestions are you able to share?

For youths who need to draw mazes my recommendation is get a ream of excellent previous copy paper and a pleasant aptitude felt tip pen and simply begin drawing. Strive drawing several types of paths, spirals, squiggles, zig zags and so forth. Study to attract the weather of the mazes first after which put them collectively in attention-grabbing methods.  Deal with your mazes like doodles, simply free affiliation, draw no matter comes into your head with out over considering it. Simply let it occur.  There isn’t any a technique to attract, no proper or unsuitable, simply totally different. You all have your individual distinctive fashion and approach. Let it develop and develop. One of the best ways to try this is simply to attract and draw and draw….

4. Inform us about your experiences with cartoon museums.

I grew to become the visiting resident cartoonist of the Charles M. Schulz Museum when it opened 15 years in the past. I’ve returned yearly since, usually twice a yr. I normally train a couple of day of cartooning camps after which on the weekend I do performances within the theater and mini workshops within the classroom. My performances are a mixture of storytelling and stay cartoon illustration, I draw tales as I inform them.  I like the Schulz Museum. My earliest recollections as an artist are of drawing Snoopy. Charles Schulz was my lifelong hero. So it’s an amazing honor to have the connection I do with the museum.

My visits to that museum and the Cartoon Artwork Museum in San Francisco impressed me to start out a cartoon artwork museum in Pittsburgh. The ToonSeum. I had been a performer with the Youngsters’s Museum of Pittsburgh for 20 years so I had a very good grounding in museum operations. I began the museum in 2007 and helped it develop and broaden as the manager director for 7 years. I left to focus by myself cartooning profession. After nearly a decade of hanging up different individuals’s artwork it was time to return to creating extra of my very own.

5. Are you engaged on any huge initiatives in the meanwhile?

Listed here are his two books at present on the market:

Thanks for studying this particular interview with Joe Wos.  Are you able to consider some attention-grabbing methods you possibly can carry his art work into your classroom?  A few of my college students just lately created a few of their very own mazes, which I’ll share with you later.

For now, right here is one ultimate maze to go away you with.  Ha ha!

(All photographs shared with permission from Joe Wos. Copyright belongs to Joe Wos/MazeToons.)

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