Mini Q&A With Kitchener-Waterloo Artist Jonathan Munz (AKA Munzy)

After almost four years of managing Kitchener-Waterloo artist Jonathan Munz’s career, naturally, I’ve received a lot of question about who Jonathan is and what inspires him to create his art.

In an effort to start answering some of those questions here's a mini Q&A I recently put together that I hope you'll enjoy!

Laura: You flip-flop between painting in two very different art styles. How would you describe those?

Jonathan: We’ve usually referred to the one "style" as "liney", as it is simply a lot of black outlines with flat colours filled in between, basically a paint by numbers scenario (our business name is a play on that). The other "style" are my renditions of impressionism.

Laura: How did your artistic style develop? Who are your influences?

Jonathan: I was lucky to have a lot of great teachers growing up, who basically encouraged one in whatever endeavours they liked, on the creative front special thanks to Pat Costigan and two of my high school art teachers Mr.Caesar and Ms. Burnett. This continued in my college years (Graphic Design program in Kingston), my colour theory class was especially well taught by Michael Shumate (a fantastic illustrator and great teacher), and I learned a lot from him specifically. As a Canadian boy who was lucky enough to enjoy camping trips to Algonquin Provincial Park most summers, I was hugely influenced by the Group of Seven, Tom Thompson especially. Of course I also love the shape-work of Picasso, and the colours and swirls of Van Gogh among others, and was perhaps most fascinated by Leonardo of Vinci's work. And I also have a love of eastern art, specifically the depictions of Mt. Fuji.

Laura: What inspires you?

Jonathan: Mostly nature, and photos thereof inspire me. Also, my mom.

Laura: How do you work?

Jonathan: I almost always work from a photographic reference to start, and basically paint away with some music or sports in the background.

Laura: If you had three wishes, what would they be?

Jonathan: A Spitfire, a cottage (does including a dog waste another wish?), and though I'm unconvinced it's completely possible, I would enjoy world peace.