Jack and I have been working together for somewhere around a year.  We have a very unique way of working together and has been the same method we have used from the beginning.  I will create a painting and complete it by penciling and painting it usually in acrylic about 60-70% finished and pass it to Jack along with any notes on finishing things and let him complete our work.  The way we work together could be compared to the way a songwriter and a musician create a song together.  A songwriter can only make a song as inspired as the music is to them and this also holds true for us.  Jack can only make a painting as good and as inspired as I made it.  If you don't put your heart into it, it's probably not going to be very good.

 The both of us are quite opposite of one another, from the way we work right down to our appearances.  He is medium height and quite skinny, and I am very tall and big.  Looking at our photo together you could compare us to such odd couples like Laurel and Hardy or Penn and Teller.   Perhaps it is because we are so different that we can both work together so well and bring different things to our art and really make exciting, creative pieces and also helps keep everything fresh and interesting, always trying to work harder than the other.  

About Jason Potratz:

I am 32 years old, Born in Monterey, California but you could call my hometown  Maui, Hawaii because all of my family are based there.  I grew up all around the United States and spent most of my life living overseas from Malaysia, Korea, Singapore and Thailand to France.  I now live with my wife, Van (expecting our first child), in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

I grew up on comic books in the 80's and I was inspired to become an artist through comics.  I enjoyed a few superhero comics like Batman but was more into independant comics (non Marvel and DC comics) like Vertigo, Heavy Metal and European comics.  I studied Fine Arts in College for two years and went to an Art School for 3 years.  Somewhere along the way in school I had lost all interest in Comics and also on what kind of Art career I wanted to make for myself as well. 

After graduating I tried to make a living in illustration and freelance work and even created my own Comic Book called, "the Legendary", inspired by The Lord of the Rings as well as being dedicated to Professor Tolkien.  It was also as a last farewell to the comic books that had inspired me to become an artist too.  After a few years of an unsuccessful career as an artist, I eventually gave up art in my life altogether and even went so far as to destroy all of my years of illustrations and paintings in a fit of frustration, anger, pity and doubting myself as an artist.  I threw everything I had ever done away, much to my regret now. 

 I worked in a number of odd jobs for about 8 or 9 years before my interest in art was renewed once again.  The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy had inspired me to take up brush and paint again (along with the help and endless support of my wife) and I started painting portraits of the characters on sketch cards and canvas in acrylics and oils.   I felt this was really what I should be spending my days doing, it was enjoying and satisfying and I felt like I was accomplishing work that I could look back on and be proud of.  With each day that passed as I went to work at a "real job", I knew I couldn't go on working on things I didn't love and I gave up a good, steady income.  So I quit my job and dived back in, head first, into being an artist.  I am thankful for everyday that I get to sit and paint and do what I love most.   Now I can make a living painting interesting things and make enough money to support my Wife and family.   Thank you!

About Jack Hai: 

 Jack is 25 years old and has many girlfriends.  Like most artists he has had a passion for art since he was a child and has always admired painters.   His Uncle is a successful painter, his work is well known in parts of Asia and has been a great influence on him and is credited for helping spark Jack's career in art.  Never getting the chance to study or paint during the early years of his life, he worked very hard to help support his family and left his dream of being an artist behind him for many years.

Around the age of 21 after working a factory job for 4 or 5 years, he decided he couldn't go on working a boring job and started painting full time.  His talent was natural but he had no formal training or any teachers to help guide him in refining his skill.   By chance, he soon met an older artist who had a long career and also once had some fame to his name 30 years in the past.  The first time he met Jack, he saw the natural , raw talent he had to become a good artist and decided he would teach him and pass on everything he knew to his young student.

Over the next three years the older artist took Jack under his wing and taught him everything from how to draw and paint, to advice on how to live his life.  One of the old artists sayings was, "NEVER earn a living as an artist or a painter.  If you want to have a job and make a decent living in life, go study something else.  It will be a lot easier than trying to be an artist.".  Jack took everything to heart and studied very hard.  He studied to become a painter and left the life of a factory worker behind him.  He took on any job painting anything to make money and keep his dream of being an artist alive, from portraits of people all the way to large wall painting murals. 

Sometime in the summer of 2007, he met Jason Potratz who coincidentally happend to spot him working on a painting as he passed by.  He saw Jack's work and immediately saw he was very talented.  They talked for a while and were almost instantly friends.  They kept in touch from that first chance encounter together.  Several months passed and Jason asked Jack if he was interested in helping him finish many paintings and small sketch card paintings that he could not finish by himself since he had a normal job and could only work on Sundays on them.  He gave him three oil paintings and a list of things to retouch to try out.  A week later Jack brought them back and had retouched everything on them and quite beautifully too. 

 After a few months working together in this way and not having his name credited to these collaborative works, Jason and Jack started signing everything and the both of them also started working together full time 6- 7 days a week.  Now almost a year later the two artists know each other quite well and work very tightly together.