Draw, Draw, Do Not Waste Time: Remembering Jason Polan

Jason Polan passed away on Monday, January 27th at 37 years old. The cause of death was cancer. 

A Jason Polan original.

He was known for his drawings: usually fast and unembellished forms drawn whipped up with a .05 Micron on a 6 x 8 Strathmore Drawing Pad (he really disliked the drawing of the girl on the cover… me too). He would routinely host Taco Bell Drawing Clubs, on the fly drawing meetups at Taco Bell locations in Manhattan. On his instagram and through his drawings, he catalogued the mundane, documenting what he ate for breakfast, an odd sight he saw while walking, a friend he ate lunch with. He was a distillation of the culture around him: comic books, sports, food, friends, daily life. Images and representations of his personal fascination would appear on his Instagram as collections of six or more photos, usually accompanied by an insidiously funny 300 word caption with meandering thought trails, throwing social media norms to the wind. He was a personal hero of mine.

Jason and a fan in some shirts he drew for a collaboration with Uniqlo.

Through the window of his Instagram, you would have never known he had cancer. Hindsight, still undefeated, reveals all. He drew like there was no tomorrow. 

Polan drew what he saw.

Every week he had a new collaboration with a major brand, institution, or artist. He tasked himself with drawing every person in New York. He collected. He documented. To be able to draw, you must be able to see. This was a man who clearly never closed his eyes.

The Polan process.

Production value did not matter. Half-completed, half-assed drawings were frequently posted on his page and made their way into his books. Four words scrawled on a piece of paper were worth posting. Perfection was not the enemy; perfection was not even an acquaintance of Jason. His “social media presence” flies in the face of what has become standard today: overly manicured Instagram feeds with best practice captions. He never took himself seriously.

An example of one of Jason’s wonderful Instagram captions.

So, what does his death mean? What can we make of such brilliance leaving us so soon? To me, it is identical to the pre-death-note Michaelangelo left to his apprentice, “Draw, Antonio, draw, Antonio, draw and do not waste time.”Jason Polan wasted none.