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CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF CREATIVE EXCELLENCE 1873 — 2023

Jaleel Blanchard

Jaleel Blanchard

Website: jaleelblanchard.weebly.com
Ins: @honey_beeleo

Artist Statement

Whenever I was outside using my grandma’s wooden cane as a sword, I was drawing new characters and reading many comic books and manga. Although the teachers weren't too happy about this along with my frequent maladaptive daydreaming during class, I couldn’t help but escape into it to avoid the constant bullying I had gone through. I found an extensive catalog of manga, comic books, and graphic novels. They became the only thing I looked forward to seeing at that school.

As a result, I started to imagine my entire world like one of those books, drawing the characters from it and dreaming of one day becoming a comic book artist with my own characters. My work centers around creating a fictional narrative through paintings, drawings, and animation in which I interrogate and satirize modes of African American representation within popular media.

Artist Bio

Jaleel Blanchard (He/They) (b. 1997, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an artist currently based in Syracuse, New York, attending Syracuse University as an M.F.A. degree candidate. He received a B.A. degree at the University of Notre Dame. Working primarily in painting, drawing, and animation, Jaleel investigates character design, myth making, and world building.