Jason Seiler grew up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where a simple teenage prank launched
his artistic career. After getting caught drawing parodies of his high school history
teacher, Seiler’s principal gave him a job creating caricatures of other faculty members,
and he never looked back.
In 1996, Seiler moved to Chicago and spent several years touring with bands as a
guitarist and singer, torn between a life as an artist or as a musician. He ultimately chose
art and went on to study fine art illustration at the American Academy of Art before
becoming a full-time artist. Though he does not consider himself strictly a caricaturist,
his paintings and illustrations often include elements of caricature, used to exaggerate and
create humor and depth in his subjects.
His work, both humorous and serious, has been featured in numerous publications,
including Rolling Stone, TIME, Der Spiegel, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Business
Week, MAD magazine, and The New Yorker. Seiler’s client list has also included Disney,
Universal Pictures, Penguin Group, Sony Image, and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland,
for which he worked as a character designer. In 2010, Seiler won a silver award from the
Society of Illustrators West for his portrait of Elvis Costello.
For several years, Seiler has taught painting and drawing for the online art school
Schoolism. Aside from drawing, he loves to skydive and dreams of one day cage diving
with great white sharks. Until that day comes, he will spend his time not devoted to art
with his two daughters, Isabeau and Ava.
Seiler lives in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago. Celebrity Chefs (2014) is his
first project for the U.S. Postal Service.
I'm excited to say that it is official that I will be doing a series of paintings for the United States Postal Service! My official bio and pic have been approved! Let the painting begin!!!!
Here is a shot of me last night on the T.V. show "Best Ink". It was strange, I was there for an entire day, filming and mostly they have me saying things like, " What's up, how's it going?" Hahah! Of course, I said so much more that would have been helpful to have shared with viewers at home but at least the artists themselves got to hear what they needed to hear. Perhaps I was a little harsh with what I actually thought and said about their art? It would have been great for all of your enjoyment to actually hear what I said to the five remaining artists. :)
It was also interesting to see that they edited everything in a way to obviously add more drama and suspense and to try and trick the viewer into thinking something else might happen. It was very interesting experience.
