Bored Panda got in touch with Jorn to ask him more about himself and his creative process. The artist shared that he grew up in the deep north of Siberia above the Arctic circle in the former Norinlag town Dudinka (part of a gulag). "That is a very isolated place, no roads are going there, only planes. 9 months of winter with polar nights, meters of snow and frost down to -60C° (so we'll stay inside Soviet-type boxes of houses). The internet connection there was bad, so it was hard to rely on the outer web of artists to grow with. But there was a local town network where a few people were striving to draw, design and animate. Those people were my community and thanks to them it was possible to try learning digital art, design and animation."
We asked Jorn how he came up with the idea to create this series of illustrations. The artist replied that this idea is not new, as it is popular among artists to take something they know well and adore and give it a different look. "I did those characters quite a long time ago now, but I guess as I was growing up and figuring out all that adulthood for myself, it was a fit topic for me to take characters I was watching while growing up and play with them. And to be fair, as I got a degree in law and no art education (except drawing classes for children), I needed to draw a lot to practice technique, color, composition and all. So I also really needed a fun topic for several works that would let me have fun while studying and making them."
The most challenging part for Jorn was actually drawing these characters. "If you compare these works you would be able to see the difference in technique and style as I was getting more experience with every piece of artwork. And the most fun part was trying to portray a mood of a character. You know, like how fun and crazy Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls is or how quirky and curious her brother Dipper is."
"I'm, as it's called, a socially awkward person, so for me, drawings have been a way of communication. Yeah, at the beginning it was hard to communicate something more tangible as I simply didn't know ways to do it and did not understand what I would like to say there. But when I got some experience with grown-ups, it was easier to move to make works about things that are important to me, like finding yourself as a part of your family, being loved, and losing loved ones. And at some point, I was able to look outwards and draw some works about life in Siberia, life in Russia with the devastation of the fourth inauguration of Putin, widespread online censure by the government, police brutality and so many issues there created by the regime nowadays. And even at my work in a mobile game dev company (Beresnev games in Prague on Pixelwoods game), there is so much that I and other artists can communicate through art and characters that we are making for games here. So, well, yeah, communication it is."
Besides game art, the artist is striving to communicate things that need to be talked about. "Mental health awareness, war and corruption, family and relationships, queerness and 'normality' and stuff like that. Still learning, still doing pages and pages of practice to be able to do all that stuff. So yeah, do hope to not get into moralizing, but better to communicate all the ideas that are close and important to me in 2d and 3d works that are drawing people into them to explore those ideas."
Lastly, Jorn wanted to add that "through the last years and especially now it is hard to go through the day without zoning out, panicking or falling into despair, even being so far from the horrors of a homeland. The lives of the art community, friends and family are all heavily influenced by Putin's war and his corrupt violent regime. So I can wish for all of us more strength and resilience to get through that time and for the victory of Ukraine. I know that it probably shall be a fun article about fun characters but at the moment it is hard to say something of that kind, sorry."