James Ormiston, or JPOrmiston, creates art where dreams and reality collide; he crafts visions of the unexpected and the unusual. His style, which he describes as having elements of pop-surrealism is, nonetheless, – in his “contrarian” opinion – much better described as “Magic Surrealism” and borrows from the fantastical and the bizarre.

The self-proclaimed, “artsy Kiwi” grew up on a farm in New Zealand, but has since moved to Melbourne, Australia. Both JPOrmiston’s passion and his sense of humor are evident in the statement that he is inspired by “the deeply held conviction that if I stop making art, I might die. Also, art blogs.”

He also admits that creating art “gave me a sense of purpose” in a world that otherwise felt “terrifyingly structureless” and chaotic. When he is creating art, he never feels “lost, because there is always something to be working on.” James focuses on one drawing at a time; he understands that it can often be a tedious task filled with research and gathering reference images but that each step helps him move forward.

He recognizes that “art is easy to romanticize, but really it’s just days of isolation making tiny marks on paper until it’s done.” Still though, he never feels bored or tired because each mark can be like a step towards building a new universe. JPOrmiston says he “can’t turn off the part of me that wants to make things” and, although some might say it makes him “terribly boring” he enjoys that he never stops envisioning new designs and ideas.

He finds inspiration from the Irish-born painter, Francis Bacon, who celebrates the bold and the outrageous. Bacon has a “willingness to go too far” and, although you may not like his work, JPOrmiston says, “you can’t deny its ability to make you feel.” James channels this boldness in his philosophy that you can’t worry if something is “good” because it is more important to “just keep making” art and moving forward, one step at a time.