Jose Mertz: the Art of Zen

Jose Mertz is an artist, born and raised in Queens, New York. In some circles he was picked on other circles like magnet schools in Miami he was looked at as Captain America. Jose had a lot of anger inside as a youth which lead him to study Zen and as his teacher told him his discipline shows in his work. You can tell a lot about a person by their signature. Jose’s signature reads forward, moving, individual thinker. With a style all of his own he was picked up by fashion line Parish Nation, and for this 26 year old the world is unfolding before his hand.

Scheme: When did you first realize that you had a talent for drawing?

Jose Mertz: Probably elementary school, I used to chill with my boy Ray and he’s still my boy to this day and we’ve always been competitive. He was into drawing breasts and muscles exploding, and I was always trying to top him. I think it was in the fourth grade and my art teacher was like, “your pretty good.” and from there my teacher told my mom that I should try out for a magnet school. From there it was a wrap I just kept drawing.

Scheme: When did you get your first big break, when did you get recognized?

Joes Mertz: I would say that one teacher and her name was Ms. Sydney in elementary school. It’s hard to say because what I think might be big to me might not be big to everybody else. After I had finished college I actually started studying Zen, and really started getting involved in eastern philosophy. A well known Zen teacher really took notice to the hand quality of my drawings and was like, “I can tell that you meditate and that you’ve been meditating for a while.” I was like, “How can you tell?”, l and he said, “I can tell by the hand quality of your drawing.” From there the conversation went further to psychology and all kinds of other stuff which was for me was a big deal, because he can read into the lines and he was into calligraphy and how you signature your name a person can tell a lot about you.

Scheme: How did you get involved with Zen, what made you go that route?

Jose Mertz: Anger bro (laughs) I was angry! Actually I had studied abroad my junior year of school and my sister asked me if I wanted to join a meditation class and I knew nothing about it. I just went to support my sister. Actually I wasn’t interested in just Zen, it was Buddhism in general. I wouldn’t consider myself a Buddhist but it made sense to me you know. I started reading all this mythology and different deities and stuff like that, and the Zen resonated for me because it cut through all the fluff, it was like be here in the moment now, cut out the past and the future, as well as the probability, and for me it made the most sense and it’s pretty much embedded in my life.

(Initial thought)

Scheme: Where does the drive come from to create art?

Jose Mertz: From jellyfish, to people riffing in the street, it has a pretty broad range, but I also get inspired by music. I listen to Roy Ayers, Massive Attack, and on the art side I like to look at a lot of contemporary artists like Matthew Richie, Inca, Damon Hurst and then a lot of old school cats. Right now I’m doing the fashion stuff and I still look to those dudes for inspiration because I’m relatively new to the fashion stuff.

Scheme: What’s in store for you this year regarding your work?

Jose Mertz: I’m thinking about putting out a small book because right now most people are seeing what I’m doing clothing wise. Personally I’m trying to do more shows and galleries. Everything is still unfolding as we speak, nothing is really set in stone. I haven’t had a solo show yet and I’m trying to smash it with that.

Scheme: Did you ever get picked on as a kid because you liked to draw? In school you had your cliques, the jocks, the nerds, the cool cats who had all the latest gear, what was that experience like for you as a kid?

(Matters Comubust)

Jose Mertz: It’s funny, it depends what type of crew your around. One year I was hanging out with my sister and she was on the drill team and she hung around the football players and I was her nerdy brother on the side who would draw pictures (laughs). The girls would be like, “oh your little brother he’s so cool.”, but then I’d turn the page and they’d be back to the football game, and I was just trying to get in with the girls you know (laughs). I went to this magnet school called New World in Miami, it’s this art school, and forget it, if you know how to draw your like Captain America over there. You were like the all-star football dude. So I definitely got picked on but in other circles I got a lot of love.

Scheme: So what does Jose Mertz want to achieve individually in other words what is your dream?

Jose Mertz: My dream, (laughs) that’s crazy.

Scheme: Is that cliché, is that corny! (laughs)

Jose Mertz: You know what it is, to go back to the Zen thing, you kind of have to question what is a dream all together. I’m not laughing from a point of ha-ha-ha it’s funny but from a deeper laugh like dude…

Scheme: You have no idea!

Jose Mertz: (Laughs) Yeah like I had a dude look at me straight in the eye out in the forest in a traditional Japanese setting and ask me that, “like what is a dream?” They call that a co-on, like it’s a simple question but it has a lot of chunk to it. Basically my dream is to put my art out there and have it in people’s lives, and for people to know what it is and to enjoy it. I also try to bring a lifestyle of people I relate with, I put out a podcast on my website www.leemer.org because I think music plays a major role in people’s lives. The fashion too, I mean I went to San Francisco recently and I’m new to this fashion stuff but I saw these dudes wearing the hoodies and the hoodies made them feel real hardcore. It’s cool for me to see the little sprinkles I provide in the world.

Scheme: So describe your affiliation with Parish Nation.

Jose Mertz: My homeboy C. Lamont Walk, he was working with these dudes at Enyce and these guys worked at Mecca before and a whole bunch of other well know brands. Watts and I have known each other since high school, we used to always paint and chill together, but I got into contemporary art and he got into the fashion. I hollered at him to do an art show because I was curating art shows at the time with a company that I started called www.gildlilies.com. Anyway, he hollered at me one day because I he hired some freelance dudes. People are feeling the hand drawn pieces because that’s what people are feeling right now, they want stuff that is original and not duplicated or a variation of someone else’s stuff. So they hollered at me and said they needed this drawing and were like how fast do you think you can knock it out? I told them to give me a weekend and it was a hand drawing of different hip hop icons like Biggie and cats doing willies and they loved it and they gave me a really great response and they kept giving me freelance work and the relationship just kept developing with me and these guys and boom they offered me a job and I’m all up in the group now.