About the artist

Oh, hello there. I'm Jeffrey.

Call me Jblend.

I was in Kōya-san (高野山), Japan in 1998 -- first day on the job. Kōhai mode. My boss put a firm hand on my shoulder and smiled, knowingly. I held his stare. For much, much longer than was comfortable. (What was going on? Was this workplace harassment?)

I shifted the unicorn-shaped mug of green tea in my hands, discombobulated. He looked me in the eye and announced authoritatively, "Jblend, you are ... very good boy. Welcome to Japan!"

He'd misread the paperwork, nominally re-christening me with an accidental, cross-cultural remix of my middle name and first initial, read in the wrong order; I was too embarrassed to correct him. A nickname was born.

A nickname! I had a nickname! I had gone 20 years completely nickname-less. But no longer. No name but the one given to me by my parents. No longer... now I had been given a name on my first adventure abroad: living in a rural mountaintop village, deep within the folded wings of Nightingale Valley.

Later that year, I rang in that New Year's Eve by literally ringing the temple bell with a DJ/monk friend to banish the evil spirits. He wished me a happy new year using my new name.

I've been Jblend, ever since.

I have spent a life exploring how stories change us. I believe stories connect us. My imagination is fueled by stories.

I celebrate the power of story with my art. I combine mark making, digital photography, hand-coded 3D fractal shapes and synesthetic fever dreams to celebrate the fine art of storytelling... visually.

That's my story. What's yours?

You can usually find Jblend day-drinking -- but he somehow manages to pay the bills with his day-job at the Institute for Cyber Executive Education, which he co-founded in 2025. He enjoys long walks on the beach with his co-co-founder, Henry.