GALO: Your book is really funny. Is it hard to make things funny on the page?

IJ: I used to do standup and I’ve always been a funny person. At parties, I’ve always been the life of the party. People used to fly me to their weddings, to be there and be funny, like they did [with] Milo. So, if you’re a funny person and you write, your writing is going to be funny. It’s important to be a funny person for that to happen. Funny is one of the most profound ways that I express myself. I’ve been making turns of phrase and puns and things—that was my survival mechanism growing up in my family. I came from a big family, so that was a way of getting attention. I wasn’t getting enough attention, so I thought that if I was extremely funny, maybe I would. I feel comfortable as the center of attention. I spend my life working toward making that a reality.

GALO: How did you decide to go to New York and just go for it as a street artist?

IJ: I had been an artist and was doing music as a singer/songwriter. And I would start a band and then another band, and I would work with studio musicians, and I was on the phone all the time trying to get the drummer to come to make sure that the bassist was on time. Great drummers then would always be two hours late, so I would make the rehearsal for two hours earlier without telling him, so he’d be on time. I was juggling my career as a pop singer.

And then people had seen my art and always said, “You should really do something with your art.” I had started doing art as a nine-year-old making sculptures and everything before I got caught up in the wanting to be a rock star syndrome.  I thought, ‘I’ll just take a couple colors and draw something really quick, just for the heck of it, to see what would happen.’ I took it to Times Square and people immediately would stop. New York’s a very tough town to crack, and I wasn’t cracking it totally with my pop music, but when I went out with those drawings, very well-dressed New Yorkers would stop and say, “You’ve really got something,” and would buy them.

What I liked about art was that no one critiqued me, they simply bought the stuff. I was saved from all criticism. People would buy ten, twenty, and [sometimes even] thirty. I’d go to someone’s house and they’d say, “Bring whatever you’ve got,” and they’d buy 30 paintings. Everything I painted, sold. Every painting I’ve ever made has sold. That was a phenomenon, and it was very exciting. It was funny, because the art students, they had told me, when they looked at some of my art, they said, “Remember, it’s going to be a lonely life.” But with me, it was nonstop events and people around my art, and it was very social. Of course, I caught that ’80s wave, so it was perfect timing to be a painter.

Similar to that experience is what is happening now. An ex-girlfriend of mine had told me to submit some poetry, because she has her MFA, and she said that she could spot good poetry. So I submitted some poems, and about three weeks later, I got these acceptance letters. I had forgotten I had even submitted them! So I said, “Let me try this again.” And those got accepted. And I thought, “Hold on a second! I’m on to something here.” It was just unbelievable. I became very excited, just writing poems. I would workshop them at a writers group, and then I’d submit. It became this addiction to getting published. Dozens and dozens of poems have been published, and that has opened the door for the novels. It’s just fun to create something and get the feedback, and see them published, online or in print.

GALO: For Milo, his success is sometimes a burden, because it’s a lot to live up to. It seems like you have done many things successfully. Do you ever feel that success is also a curse in some ways?

IJ: I think it’s important to be successful. I’ve had a taste of it, and I’ve had it slip away. Now I’m getting it again. If you’re a painter, you need to make lots of money to make lots of paintings. As a writer you need to do well, so that you have the time to write. I have to admit, I’m adjusting to seeing my stories really come out. I knew I had something and I was really determined to stick with it until they did come out. Just in the nick of time, almost similar to that story, it happened, and it took a slight adjustment period. You can’t let yourself get self-conscious. You have to be the leader of your own spirit. You have to lead people on to the next stories. I think that success is a blessing.

GALO: Do you have any other thoughts for our readers?

IJ: Keep an eye out. I have a second novel coming out called Seeing Soriah, and that’s kind of a mystery/fantasy, kind of a darker novel. That’s another one set in the art world. If you take The Sixth Sense, mix it with the art world and Steppenwolf, put together, [you get, Seeing Soriah]. But it also has some wit. Even in the darkest scenes, I try to throw a little something to change the pace, ease the tension. I want people to know that I’m excited to entertain them with my writing, and that I’ve got a lot more tricks up my sleeve and a lot more stories to tell. I think that Dead Artist is a great introduction.

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