Freddy the iguana by Klonism in Leeds

Jake Klone aka Klonism is a 34-year-old artist, who originates from Leeds, West Yorkshire. His artwork has been seen by many and has astounded many people in different areas of the world. The art that he creates is in a graffiti style, using bold and attention-drawing colors. Jake has been inspired since he was 12 years old by the art of graffiti. Jake’s artwork is extremely outgoing and well-detailed. It is obvious that he takes pride in his work and by doing this his talent is shown immediately. At 22 years old, he took a career change and began teaching young people in schools how to create art. He would show them how to paint murals and would also take part in running after-school clubs for the young people around Leeds. After a few years, Jake decided to move to Mexico at the age of 27 and still is based there now. Although he lives in Mexico, he travels a lot. Whilst being over in Mexico, Jake has been doing murals all over the South of Mexico inspired by the Oaxacan folk art of Alebrijes. Over the past year, he has spent a lot of time in Denver, Colorado. The entire time he has been away from the UK he has still continued with his art by creating murals. Jake does split his time in traveling to Mexico, Denver and the United Kingdom as these are the main places his art takes place. His murals have been created in a few places. He created a mural with Leeds City Council on a number of community projects. For Jake this was an important part of his career as this artwork was for his hometown, where he grew up. As well as community projects, he was asked to create a mural for the Tour De France when it started in Leeds. All these achievements have made Jake’s career in mural painting a success. More recently, he has been traveling to festivals in the United States to create murals- one of which was for “AWALL mural projects” at Art Basel in Miami to create another huge mural at a primary school. As well he recently travelled to Kingston, Jamaica to create a mural at Haile Selassie high school for “Touch Up Jamaica” - a project led by John and Lindsay Lamb to brighten up the run down communities of Jamaica by painting murals on the island. During his career as an artist, he has met many other amazing artists that he has formed close friendships with. He hopes to be able to visit many of them in the future.