‘It Has To Feel Right': Jason Pearson Draws Mental Health, Quantum Physics And T&A [Art]

Best known to comics readers for his many covers for Marvel's Deadpool and for his creator-owned series Body Bags (first published by Dark Horse and reissued by 12-Gauge), Jason Pearson has long been a favorite of artwork aficionados. Once a part of Atlanta's storied Gajin Studios along with other practitioners of the gorgeous high-contrast black-and-white style like Brian Stelfreeze, Tony Harris, Karl Story and Cully Hamner, Pearson has always created exceptional work on the comics page, but scheduling necessities have kept his work most visible on covers. Sadly, Pearson came to a crossroads last year that saw him doubt his place in the industry. With the help of colleagues and fans, Pearson is back at the drafting table and has returned to drawing commissions. Very interestingly, Pearson has infused the uncommonly beautiful new work -- which is largely titillating in nature, as is often the case with private commissions -- with layers of personal meaning and themes that make each piece, in Pearson's words, feel right.In a long posting to Facebook, Pearson framed his life and career as a conflict between two opposing philosophies, "Just do it" and "It has to feel right." In light of a personal crisis last year, the artist concluded that the latter is the best path for him -- despite the financial consequences of no longer working with Marvel and DC. Pearson's been accepting cheesecake commissions from art collectors and preparing new installments of his relatively underground creator-owned work, but while the economic rewards are and will be few, for Pearson it's more about getting by on another level.

Why resort to efforts that have offered me nothing but an incredible surplus of agitation, disappointment and financial instability. Gainful livelihood abhors complication but my very existence is a motherf***ing complication. So f*** it.

Are we stardust as Joni Mitchell declares or are we just clusters of molecules slamming into each other as Schrodinger's Equation suggests. Either way, reality is merely perception. These pieces of art should appear as nothing more then images of tits and ass, but within these requested preameters I had to 'feel right' about doing them. A reason for their existence had to be achieved.

To you, Domino sits naked with Deadpool reflected in a mirror. To me, it's a theory about the fear and hate of true love.

To you, Elektra looks cool as a pin cushion for arrows and ninja stars, to me, she's about acceptance.

So is the Panda/Baby Doll piece.

Scarlet Witch is about the death of family and the happiness that blossoms from it.

Those are my conclusions. Maybe I'm stupid for using cheesecake to answer questions about psychiatry and quantum physics but it gets me through the f***ing day. If I'm wrong, then at least you can be amused by the titillation.

While your mileage may vary on the subject matter, I don't think it can be denied that the reenergized Pearson's work has never looked better. The artist indicated he may be looking to Kickstarter in the future to help finance his next comics work, but in the meantime fans can contact Mike Alexandropoulous at MoreGreatArt.com to purchase artwork from Pearson's publishing jobs, including Deadpool, X-Men, Robin and more, or to commission an original piece. As you can see in this process graphic below, you know he's going to put a hell of a lot of thought and work into it.