AJ Redmond

Santa Cruz, CA

"I want making art to be my job, I want people to know me through my artwork.”

AJ Redmond (he/him/his) is a prolific artist who enjoys creating scenes that pay homage to Santa Cruz, California, where he currently lives. When AJ moved from Oceanside to Santa Cruz, he quickly become a fixture in his community by capturing the details of Santa Cruz’s most popular pastimes — bike and motorcycle culture, and landmarks.

He creates art at The Claraty Arts project, a studio dedicated to the empowerment and education of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Since working with Claraty, AJ’s work has been featured at multiple exhibitions in the Bay Area, Southern California, and Dallas, Tx. 

AJ always wanted to be an artist. He remembers a mural on the wall in his preschool classroom, pointing to that moment as the moment he began to chase art. In school years later, he developed technical skills through art classes.

AJ exhibits natural talent in any medium he utilizes. He prefers pen and ink because it demonstrates his meticulous eye for detail. He says, “I try to capture details and textures to express the beauty in real life.” It typically takes AJ about a month to complete one of his sought-after ink drawings.

AJ employs an interesting process when creating his pieces. He will generally start in a corner or in the center of his piece and work out from this starting point. He often utilizes a reference image to create sketches with unique proportions. Observers of AJ’s process can see that his eye is attracted to patterns unseen by most. His shading patterns, in sequence, complete his drawings. The result is an impressive vision of a world that is beyond the everyday perspective.