Meet Jonathan Borthwick

We recently connected with Jonathan Borthwick and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jonathan, so excited to have you with us today, particularly to get your insight on a topic that comes up constantly in the community – overcoming creativity blocks. Any thoughts you can share with us?

The ebb and flow of creativity in any artform is something to be expected. Because so much of our personal experience of life informs our creative process, it very rarely seems to stay consistent for any artist over the duration of their career or life. What is happening in your personal life, or your work life has a large impact on creative inspiration as well as creative motivation. The pendulum swings away from and towards each as we go through our lives, those swings back and forth contribute to our artist’s ideas and concepts, the steady middle point in which the pendulum settles in is where that work is primed to be done.

When we talk about creative blocks I always tend to drift in my conversation about the inherent difference between inspiration and motivation. The two almost exist as necessary opposites, the creatively inspired may lack the motivation to turn their ideas into finished works, just as the motivated may not be necessarily inspired by a large output of creations. Only in reference to creative blocks do I use the example of inspiration and motivation as opposing forces, visually it would be a Venn diagram, where the crossover between the two circles is the place where the artist is “in the window”, where the artistic satisfaction in your work exists.

The “Window” of this Creative Venn diagram will be compressed to a veneer so thin you can hardly see it and widen to a vast expanse so that you can hardly avoid it as you go through life. Your health, your relationships, your career and everything in between that we all experience push and pull the inspirational and motivational forces, the outer circles of the Venn, thus unavoidably the gap in the middle will contract and expand.

Now that I’m done rambling about the external forces that influence creative blocks and turning the topic into a math lesson, I will try to reign this spiel back in and explain to you how I handle my own creative blocks and the techniques I have used to combat the dooming forces that pull inspiration and motivation so far apart, that they may never meet again…
I try to stay as far away from distractions as possible, what I define as distractions may differ from one person to the other but for me, it is the avoidance of falling prey to the attention economy. The main culprit being social media. As an artist, there are forces out there trying to rob you of your time all day long. Social media is far too algorithm driven so that I have a really hard time understanding how you can be spoon fed inspiration and take it seriously. I don’t enjoy watching other people’s greatest hits , I don’t need an endless stream of artists’ creations shown to me every day, it creates more envy than it does inspiration for me. It’s quite simple how to mitigate this, I just don’t take part in it anymore. You would be shocked at the time you get returned and the sense of mental well-being you experience as a result. You may find yourself standing around with nothing to do, instead of flipping through reels or posts on a phone, you may look at a tree, or see a woman drop a green smoothie on the floor as she is piling trader joes bags into her SUV, maybe from this beautiful scene you would have otherwise missed, you will find motivation and inspiration to do a cartoon.

I have that distraction out of my phone, now, remove it from the home. I work from a desk in my apartment, I do not have internet; I do not have a TV. When I am home there are limited things to do, I am eating, I am sleeping, showering or drinking mezcal. But above all I’m at my table drawing with music playing over the speakers. Anything beyond that is going to be difficult to achieve. I must try to center my existence at home around drawing, to the point that it becomes difficult to avoid.
Without too much outside influence beyond my personal experience with my own life, I find myself inspired by things close to me. I used to draw a lot of political cartoons and social commentary cartoons when I was glued to the news. As of recently I still try to keep that going, but I almost always look for firsthand exposure and experiences from my own life as inspiration for drawings. That with a lack of distractions between myself and my drawing table, really doesn’t leave many hurdles for me now to get into the window.
Lastly, I try to not take life too seriously. I like to keep a satirical and critical lens on throughout my experience of life, be it travelling with friends, drinks alone at a bar, heartbreak from losing a lover or seeing that poor woman drop her green smoothie. Theres’s inspiration and motivation in the air always, just keep the pendulum greased and eventually you will find yourself in the window.

I’m reading this back now and I think I was given a bit too much rope to talk off about Creative blocks. I hope you the reader will be able to make some sense of this rambling outburst I’ve made because I’m struggling to find any structural clarity in what I’ve written and I’m in far too deep to consider rewriting this. However, in view of subsequent events, I’m a cartoonist and not a writer, I hope this is all taken with a grain of salt and at least a pinch of irony.

Jonathan

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I work full time as a Hydrographer for a Marine Salvage company on the Texas coast. The company primarily conducts wreck removals, commercial diving, oil spill clean up, heavy lift projects and maritime emergency response projects. I get to travel all over the gulf and accross the United States on projects that are always different and usually very challenging. I love where I have arrived in my career, my coworkers at the company are some of the hardest working people I know and maintain a confidence and energy in the face of danger and absurdity that is just fascinating.

The drawing and illustrating is something I do as much as I can outside of work. Because my career requires alot of travel and very short notice responses, I really put a big emphasis on grabbing as much time at the drawing table as I can when Im home. Ive always been really intrgiued and influenced by the graphic illustrators of the UK, Gerald Scarfe, Ralph Steadman and Ronald Searle. Their cartoons and depiction of life and society in the UK during their time has always resonated as an artform and satirical approach to visual reportage that I turn to as inspiration all the time. My obsession with drawing started at 26, when I saw Ralph Steadman’s illustrations in a book here in America, since then Ive always told myself I want to be able to create art and concepts that were like those represented in his drawings, to this day its an ongoing endeavor. Ive branched off into my own style and bad habits, Im happy to know that today at 35 Ive arrived at a style that Is my own, however Im happy to see the reverberations of his influence in almost every drawing I do.

I dont think I’ll ever try to make a career of drawing, Its far too important to me to want to associate my art with the idea of money. I read an interesting quote in a Malcom Lowry book the other day, “Journalism equals intellectual male prostitution of speech and writing”. Im not sure entirely what he means by this, but I think that I can hear an echo in there that abstractly explains my reluctance to commercialize or get into making art to sell. Because Ive got a full time job and dont want to be a career artist, Im in a great position to keep doing this forever.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back being able to take the leap and just start drawing from scratch at 26 was a big move for me. Having to nurture and grow in silence and solitutde away from the eyes of others really helped me develop my style without any outside influence. Taking a chance on something you know nothing about seems hopeless at the time, you’ll appreciate that leap years down the line. In fact i almost yearn for those early days now, when you dont know what is going on and whats coming next.

As far as advice for folks starting out in your career, I wish you all the best. Being an artist could be one of the hardest things to do in this life, to have the convicion and the drive to know what you are doing is important. Dont be discouraged, whatever you create on canvas, paper or anything else is yours and yours alone. No matter how you feel about your creations there is a pretty good chance that what youve made will only be made once and will never be replicated again.

Dont take other peoples opinions or advice too seriously either, including mine. If someone is telling you you’re doing it wrong or could do it better, tell them bullshit, youre doing it just fine. Its your journey and yours alone, enjoy it, learn from your mistakes, or embrace them! Get frustrated, rip up a drawing, sack off the moment go for a drink. Come back the next day to try again and have fun along the way.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

My parents have always been and always will be the most helpful and supportive people in my life. They are do’ers and go’ers. There isnt any challenge too hard or any situation unsolveable for them. I always put myself in their shoes when i find myself in moments of confusion and uncertainty. Our family is one of the strongest I know, my mum Evelyn, my dad Sandy and my brother Laurence have made me everything I am today. Love you all and thanks for being the best through everything weve been through together.