R2-KT is celebrating Star Wars Artists Month (SWAM) this June, and every day they will be highlighting a Star Wars artist, celebrating their work and raising awareness to ensure you only buy authentic art (and not any of the knock-off work available).
Update: There are so many amazingly talented artists that one month is just not enough to celebrate them all, so SWAM is extending into July!!
Here at Jedi News we are joining R2-KT in supporting our Star Wars artists! Here is today’s artist for July 12th, Jamie Follis.
Get to know Jamie, give him a shout-out, and use the links below to find out where you can help support him!
July 12th — Jamie Follis
Bio: My name is Jamie Follis I am a full-time high school history teacher. I also have a side business as an artist/sculptor. I have been doing this professionally for 20 years. I am most known for my redesigns of Star Wars. I have helped run every Diorama Workshop at Star Wars Celebration since C2 way back in 2002 and been a panelist for my custom sculptures twice as well as offering classes on the showroom floor for the last 3. I also work as a film/maker and production designer and serve as on of the art commissioners for my city. I have also been a guest speaker at a variety of conventions usually discussing my work or the historical, religions, or cinematic influences of Star Wars.
What drew me to Star Wars: I saw Star Wars in 1977 and it dominated my childhood. Birthdays, holidays, playtime were all Star Wars themed. My father was a maker before that was a term and I emulated him as a kid in making my own toys, props, and playsets. Today I teach college level world history, European history, comparative religions, and filmmaking and on some level Star Wars exposed me at a young age to everything I teach today. I first had in interest in World War 2, medieval fantasy, eastern religions, westerns cinema and Kurosawa all from interviews and things I read about Star Wars as a child. In college in the mid 90’s I wrote papers that explored the historical, mythological and religions influences of Star Wars before there were books and entire YouTube channels exploring them. So, as I began from to move from making toys to trying to express my ideas artistically the logical first place was my primary passion, Star Wars. So, I began to take every aspect that influenced the creation of Star Wars and isolate that influence and explore it visually in my work. I believe these explorations are part of desire on my part to continually recapture the wonder Star Wars held over my imagination as a child. I try to explore the universal and timeless themes of Star Wars by constantly reinterpreting it through the lens of all the film genres and eras that influenced the original films. My work fuses discarded toys with my own sculpting to make new creations and as I redesign all of Star Wars in a new way. The goal with each line is to make wholly unique creations that are all still recognizable as Star Wars. This really took off in the early 2000’s before mash ups and such things were commonplace. Before I would begin a line, I would apply my historical research skills for months and make sure this was not an avenue that had been explored visually before. Each line is basically a me answering a fundamental question of “What would a Wild West Star Wars look like?”, when I complete the line I know. Then the filmmaker takes over as part of my process includes me writing out an entire backstory or plot with new names and story elements and then I approach it like a production designer. Then I create the figures using a combination of kit bashing and hand sculpting. To celebrate my site’s 20 years anniversary, I just completed a new line called “Once Upon a Time in Space” that attempts to recombine all the various elements I have spent the last 20 years unraveling and dissecting. I have chosen over the years to keep this as a side profession, I love teaching, but I also love creating these new ideas and putting them out in the world for fans to enjoy.
Where to buy: I am kind of one man show and sell most of my one of kind, handmade pieces myself directly through my site or eBay. I never intend to sell my work but over time the need for shelf space or some extra funds leads me to selling my work.
You can find all of my figures sale on my site here or a few of my auctions currently on eBay page here, and I also post on Instagram when I have sales here.
Another artist tomorrow!
