As people, we like to look back and tell our story in one go when it’s all done, paying little, if any, attention to the smaller pieces that made it possible. When it comes to Jason Dussault, you won’t get the story without looking at each piece on its own. The story of the 45 year old mosaic artist begins in Vancouver, as a youngin’ who loved skateboarding, his comics (Team Marvel from the start) and sneakers. While this is all prototypical recreation for a kid in 2020, back then those interests wrongfully were associated with being a punk or a troublemaker. Falling victim to the educational systems lack of resources for understanding children and diagnosing kids, Jason, who suffered from a number of learning disabilities, dropped out of school by the 10th grade and since then he’s been picking up the pieces to tell the story along the way as he bloomed into a fantastic mosaic artist.
Dropping out by the 10th only made sense since there was a huge disconnect between Jason and the school “I’d spent more time skipping school and experimenting with drugs, really the only reason for school was to pick up girls.” However, an independent decision led to providing for himself as if he was an independent, so naturally the corresponding move after dropping out of school was moving out the house at 17. Thankfully for him after moving to Vancouver, family connections led to an interview at a lighting store which he was able to secure to find some footing for himself. “I was a pretty good salesman, I had the gift of gab and I ended up moving into expensive stores,” where high profiled shoppers would come in with their Chihuahuas and poodles to buy 40 thousand dollar chandeliers. From there, he built relationships with folks who were in the right circles including a man who’d come in with a small town act by the name of Rick James, eventually leading him to take a step in diamond exploration. “I don’t have any education, but I’ve got great work ethic, and I’ll start from the bottom of your company and make my way to the top.” The power of manifestation was at work as that’s exactly how things worked out.
A lot of grind in the business put him in a position to start his own exploration ventures as he made splashes in the Canadian public market along the way. As years went on he learned how to invest into what he defined as high risk-high reward companies to double up on the money he made, “Sometimes I made a lot of money and other times I lost so much money that I had to sell my own house.” Through all the variables and curveballs that came his way, his art remained a constant, surprisingly enough, he didn’t jump with full force into those waters until he was 40 years old, only 5 years ago. Luckily the fruits of his labor up to that point made him a wine tasty enough that he could enjoy it without having to worry about being on the job hunt or how he’d pay rent. However, Vancouver wasn’t set up to be an incubator for artists to succeed right away, although there were wealthy people with Ferraris and mansions, they were happy to hang up a generic piece of art as opposed to diving deep for a special piece of fine art, so he had to get outside of Canada “You’re really orphaned up here, there’s no art scene whatsoever, there’s collectors mentality here.” So where to go from there? The only place that makes sense, the middle of the Mediterranean Sea to a little island called Malta.
With a diverse background of world history going on in Malta, creative influence was simple to stumble upon, but Jason was looking to find something to stand out, not just find something simple. As a man who held onto the past, he drew some inspiration from a mosaic piece he did for a childhood idol Howard Stern in memory of the broadcast legends dog. “Mosaics are really interested because it’s one of the oldest art forms, but most of the time when you see it, it’s not given a lot of respect,” there wasn’t really a way of viewing mosaics as cool, so he looked for a way to make it cool and original. Already a self proclaimed history buff, soaking in knowledge from reading and watching documentaries, combine that with Maltas history as a catholic area there was a church on every corner, inspiring his first mosaic piece of Jesus on the cross. Feeling good and proud about his work, with a good network of friends, he met a Maltese art dealer who was on visiting family on vacation who backed him and gave him a hand by showing his piece around to some gallerists, oh and by the way, she also happened to become his wife. As life’s timing would have it, she was offered a job at the Guggenheim gallery in New York City, “She’s a great sales person, and so she pretty much said I’ll come work for you, but you gotta come look at my boyfriends art work.”
So now having hopped from Canada, to the Mediterranean, Jason was now on his way to the big apple to work on his first collection at one of the biggest galleries in the city. When it came time to decide what the inspiration behind this would be, he went with a childhood pastime of re-creating super heroes. Growing up as a loner, re-creating comic book characters was one of his favorite things to do so it came naturally to bring the process full circle. “It went pretty well, we pre-sold the show, I have my wife now to thank for it.” Setting up shop in lower Manhattan on a 4th floor walk-up, the couple ended up selling $60,000 before they even opened doors for the show. Although it seems like Jason walked into this success, it wouldn’t have been possible without a lot of alignment from studying different ceramics and other materials to relate to the subject he’d be working on. With more than plenty of talented artists out there, it was understood that a distinct style had to be developed, one that people would associate with Jason as easily as they would when they see a Kaws piece. “It’s gotta be something that is your own style, and I can’t match some guys when it comes to painting for concept, but what I could do was use a medium that people know is mine.” Wanting to truly say he built his work on his own he went and grew without mentorship, any sort of education in crafting mosaics, or even the tiniest bit of assistance along with plenty of trial and error experiments using grout and other materials that sometimes ruined the pieces, Jason had managed to carve out his own niche as an artist.
A lonely and intimate process makes Jason go back in time to the exact moment of every single individual piece he put together on a project. “I’d completely lose that if I built a template and said go crack that, I’d be able to make more pieces, but it’d take out all the fun for me.” Granted having less work available certainly drives up the value of what he does create, and with an estimated 2 and a half months dedicated to each individual piece, he’s earned everything he gets. Having a unique personality also is a huge selling point as well, as a Canadian who’s done his share of mushrooms, acid, and the other things that come along with being young and reckless made him a curious character to interact with. Going into his art career at age 40 allowed him a grand advantage since he’d explored in different avenues of life on a personal level and on a business level as a creative whether it was his diamond exploration, fashion brand, or ventures with Gene Simmons, all this tailored him for what was next. “When I sit down with a gallery I’m not sitting there going I don’t know what I’m doing, do you like my art work? I was in a position of authority.” Moreover, understanding the necessity to sell pieces is a key component of his journey, Jason understand he doesn’t have the level of respect that all the galleries and art collectors of the world would pay to Jeff Koons or Warhol, so he rides a line of making enough commercial works at a fair enough price point so that collectors will buy in order to keep him in the good graces of gallerists, after all, the galleries do need to make money also. “The moment your artwork is not selling you’re gone, that’s it.”
Being authentic and original has put Jason in a fantastic position and he likes to ride out the wave in order to reap the benefits and compile bigger platforms to work in. “The galleries will hold onto you if your work is moving, but secondly your art work is no good in your studio or in your storage,” getting out and advertising your work is a huge proponent that he preaches to anybody, after all he does know both sides of the coin as he can recollect working diligently on a piece in Ibiza for an exclusive European collection for, and when it didn’t sell, the phone calls stopped coming in. Although hustling for himself can be grueling, the changing sceneries from his studio in Ibiza, where he crafted his piece “Tranquilo” from a new process involving hardened fabric, or working on his sneaker mosaics back home in Canada, to being able to promote his premiere collection in a giant city like New York, which makes everywhere else feel like a town puts things in perspective. After all, looking at where he started, this is what he worked for “You can make it Canada, who cares? If you make it in New York as a Canadian, then Canada will follow.”
Keeping things fresh, unique, and loud, has been Jasons calling card since day one. Although Jason cut short his sneaker themed works after working on them so extensively it felt more like he was becoming a laborer, to him paying homage what he claims are the most underrated and easily collected pieces of art. Citing the work of Virgil Abloh with Nike as a huge influence to him, “I’m constantly inspired, every season there’s a new collab or design that comes out, it’s almost replacing a Rolex or some other form of pea cocking,” keeping that human element gives extra lift to his work, as his sons basketball coach and a kid that grew up wide eyed at the peak of Michael Jordans popularity, it all added to the pleasure of his process. Although traveling and putting so much time into pieces can seem overwhelming, to him, he sees it as his downtime, from the research down to the bare bones of sculpting a piece, it’s all seen as a joy ride, “The idea of retiring and making art is my retirement, it’s something that feeds me and gives me energy.”
These days, Jason stays focused on remaining active in his sons life and being an exemplary family man. Although he is simultaneously working on a new project that he estimates will be done in about a year and a half, he certainly doesn’t see it as an interference in his daily pleasures. After all, he still enjoys gallery hopping and his wife is also invested into the art world so essentially his work has also become his reality. For Jason, art has imitated life, or maybe even vice versa depending on how you see it, yet along the way he’s forcing his creative side by seamlessly weaving in-between creating middle century inspired works and larger than 90s pop culture sculptures. All this is done while looking to educate young artists about pricing their works and trading off by getting into galleries to creating leverage for themselves by being a leading example by the work he does, but above all else. But when it comes down to it he feels that he’s living the dream. Simply put, Jason wants nothing more than to create art, and to keep all the pieces with him along the way.
You can check out more of Jason’s work on his website, at the Hoerle-Guggenheim Gallery in NYC, the Maddox Gallery in London, or his Instagram.
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