Joey Potts is a Chicago based artist via California, Tennessee, Indiana, and Maryland. He has been living and working in Chicago for close to three years, after graduating with a BFA in Illustration from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, and has never felt more at home. Potts began drawing at a young age when his father brought home a drawing table and a "Learn How to Draw Cartoons" book. He would spend hours copying the images, and later began adding his own features to the drawings. His early and most important influences were seeing his father's drawings, Saturday morning cartoons, video games, plush animals, comic books, t-shirts, toys, and skateboarding.

Potts began taking his creativity seriously after a move from Tennessee to Indiana at the age of twelve. Finding comfort and solace in painting and drawing, he would spend hours working on school based assignments and his own projects. Potts' fascination with creating grew, and he soon realized it was the only real way for him to relax and communicate his thoughts and ideas.

Potts works mainly with acrylic and brush on canvas or wood panels, but also enjoys custom painting apparel, vinyl toys, and shoes. His paintings are strongly based upon characters that he creates from observation of everyday social and personal occurrences. As an observer he concerns himself with the internal uncertainties, apathies, and underlying thoughts and emotions of himself and others in daily life. His palette is bright, friendly, and childish- yet his characters are bold, highly detailed, and "grotesque---approachable, but with an air of caution.

Potts' artwork has been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide. He recently currated '(Im)Paired Visions', a collaborative group show featuring 18 different artists, and had his first two man collaborative show, 'Interrupted Reality', with photographer Roy Gardiner. He is currently working on pieces for several upcoming group shows in Chicago, Berkeley, Australia, and Germany, and his own first solo show in Chicago in October of 2008. Potts is also a Designer and Creative Assistant for the Chicago-based Design/Apparel Collective, Formula Werks.