jake_reagan

Artist Jake Reagan is having his first show "Black and White Realism" at the Bloomington Public Library. Reagan poses with one of his original pieces.

A local artist is displaying his art exhibit, “Black and White Realism,” at the Bloomington Public Library, but the artist behind the creations has not had a typical career.  

Jake Reagan began drawing when he was a kid. Reagan grew up in a small town where there was not much to do, so he would occupy his time by drawing. 

“I lived on the country when I was a kid. There wasn't a lot of kids around if I was bored and I wasn't outside, [so] that's what I did to pass my time,” Reagan said. “My parents always wanted me to pursue my art whenever I was a kid.”

When Reagan was a teen, he got involved with drugs and alcohol. This eventually led to him being sent to prison when he was about 20-years-old. 

“I've been in and out of prison for the last 20 years, and the couple times I was in prison, I drew a little bit, but it wasn't like something that I did every day,” Reagan said. 

Reagan began to draw more regularly the last time he went to prison, using it as a way to stay busy. 

“In 2014, when I got indicted by the feds, I was in the county jail and I just started drawing a picture of my son,” Reagan said. “It turned out okay, so I took another picture and I drew a face and just sat there and taught myself how to shade out of necessity, of needing to pass the time.”

Eventually, Reagan was sent to the Federal Bureau of Prisons where he was able to order art supplies that helped him continue to develop his skills and create art. He would order supplies such as charcoal pencils, graphite pencils and drawing paper. 

“Being inside, you don’t have the internet, so I ordered magazines and I would get magazines from other people. I would look through magazines and books and look for either people that I look up to as artists, musicians or actors or characters from movies that I liked myself,” Reagan said. “And if I didn't have anything like that, at the time, I would look for something in the picture.”

Reagan taught himself to use these supplies through the repetition of drawing portraits. 

“I drew 100 celebrity portraits while I was gone. I was gone for seven years,” Reagan said. “... then I started branching out into doing some original stuff with collages.”

jake_reagan_art

One of Jake Reagan's pieces.

He began to use some of these portraits to create original pieces when he ran out of things to draw. 

“I just got an idea one day. I was bored. And I thought, well, what if I take some of these pictures that I've already drawn before and rip them up and make a face out of a bunch of different faces?” Reagan said. “And I did the first one, and it turned out nice and everybody liked it.”

Reagan used these collages as references to continue drawing while in prison. 

“[Art] was like, my favorite thing to do. That was like a mental escape from being locked up. [Drawing] just came naturally, really,” Reagan said. 

When Reagan was released after his seven-year sentence, he continued to draw and create realistic portraits of famous actors, musicians and characters as well as original collages. 

He has also started to experiment with painting, which he explained has been harder to teach himself than drawing because he has not had previous experience with it. Reagan also has ideas for sculptures he might want to produce in the future. 

Reagan has continued creating art since being released from prison and has had his art displayed in small exhibits in Illinois while trying to establish his name as an artist. 

“It's amazing; even when I was [in prison], and I would draw some stuff, get a little stack and I would mail it to my mom for her to hold on to for when I came home,” Reagan said.

“When I was doing that, everybody around me is like, ‘Man, you're going to blow up when you go out there. You’re amazing,’” Reagan said. “I mean, I know it's good, but we're always our biggest critics. I didn't think that I would have stuff hanging up in a gallery.”

Reagan eventually wants to use his art to help children who have incarcerated parents. He is inspired by his own children, especially his 23-year-old daughter who was just 3-years-old when Reagan first went to prison. 

“I want to donate some of my artwork to raise money for different charities that have to do with kids having parents that are incarcerated,” Reagan said.

“I hope to start my own charity website where I can auction artwork of my own and other [artwork from] people that are in prison. They can send me their artwork, and I can auction it off on my website and start a fund to help kids who have incarcerated parents.” 

Some of Reagan’s pieces are currently being displayed at the Bloomington Public Library until Feb. 18. His artwork can also be viewed on his website.  

EMMA SYNDER is a News and Featuers Reporter for The Vidette. Snyder can be contacted at ejsnyde@ilstu.edu. Follow Snyder on Twitter at @ejsnyder21   


IF YOU SUPPORT THE VIDETTE MISSION of providing a training laboratory for Illinois State University student journalists to learn and sharpen viable, valuable and marketable skills in all phases of digital media, please contribute to this most important cause. Thank you. 

(0) entries

Sign the guestbook.

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.