Jason Polan is an American born artist based out of New York City. He may be found anywhere from a Taco Bell to New York’s MoMA, unassumingly sketching the characters around him. One of his most iconic projects is his blog entitled “Every Person in New York,” which chronicles his objective to draw every person in Manhattan. He has vowed to draw everyday, anywhere until the project is complete. The drawings are quick pen sketches that he claims only take him two minutes. He published a first book filled with thousands of these sketches in 2015 and it can be viewed here.
Taking time off from his people studies in New York, Polan partnered with Apple for the grand-opening of Apple’s Union Square store in San Francisco. He was there doing live art, which he calls “the art of observation.”
Polan has his own line of t-shirts sold by Uniqlo; the shirts feature an array of his sketches. Most recently, he teamed up with Nike to create limited edition shoes that were patterned with his drawings. His illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Metropolis Magazine, and others. Much like the man himself, Polan’s work is seemingly everywhere from clothing to newspapers.
We were lucky enough to get the opportunity to ask Polan a few questions about his work and career.
Obviously a lot of your work has to do with what happens in your everyday life. How do you keep from settling in too much and losing appreciation for “the little things?”
I think part of why I draw a lot is so I can hopefully keep noticing and looking for those little things.
What activity that you might observe makes you want to draw the person doing it the most?
Usually it isn’t a particular activity (though, it is hard for me to pass up drawing an accordion player) but a specific look of something the person is wearing, or their hair, or something else pretty specific. I don’t usually plan a specific drawing or plan to look for a specific thing, but a certain thing will get my attention. I think maybe I don’t have a good answer to this—but I think about it a lot.
In a time when museum regulars are becoming less and less common, what do you see as most crucial to preserving the tradition of viewing art?
I am not sure.
To what degree do you embrace technology in both creating and sharing your work?
Computers and the internet have helped me connect with a lot of people—either in being able to share my work with new people or by finding new things that I’m excited about.
Questions asked by Audrey Kalman, article composed by Liv Jenks.
