In celebration of LOST's final season and to bring finality to the LOST poster series,8 top designers and artists, who are also fans of the show, were commissioned to create artwork celebrating top moments from the 6th and final season. 4 artists you may recognize, and 4 new artists to the campaign, created labor intensive, hand-pulled screen prints, limited to an edition of just 550, with 500 available to the public through our website. Once this limited edition print has sold out, they will never be printed again. Celebrate finality with this unique, signed and numbered piece of history.
Our interview today is with Jeff Soto. His piece is entitled "Jacob and the Man In Black."
[caption id="attachment_7300" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Jeff Soto's "Jacob and the Man In Black""]
[/caption]LOSTblog: How did you become a fan of LOST?
Jeff Soto:The first season really got me from the first episode, just the idea of surviving a plane crash and being stranded on an island. It was very "Cast Away", but then they had to throw some weird shit in like the smoke monster, the hatch, Hurley's number sequence, and the polar bear. It felt like the computer game Myst mixed with Robinson Crusoe. Nothing was what it seemed. And the story was very rich, I really enjoyed the flashbacks. During the second season, my wife and I had a fussy newborn so we missed a few, and eventually we were like, what the hell is going on? Someday we'll watch them all again on Blu Ray, and experience it in the right order.
LOSTblog: Describe the details of how you were contacted to do the poster?
Jeff Soto: A couple months ago Jensen emailed me and said he had a big project. I am more of a fine art painter, but I have been exploring screenprinting this year so I said sure!
LOSTblog.com: What instructions or parameters were you given for the post?
Jeff Soto: I had a conference call with Jensen and one of the producers, Noreen O'Toole, and they just wanted me to do my thing. The focus was on Jacob and MIB as twin brothers, that was the big revelation in the episode. I wasn't given the script or anything, just a brief description of the main scene where Claudia gives birth and is killed by a rock to the head. They sent me a picture of the young boys walking with Allison Janney, and I was invited to come out to L.A. and watch the episode. Very tempting and accommodating on their part but I decided to stay home and work with the themes of brothers/Dark vs. Light/life from death. I didn't want to necessarily work from screen capture references, it was more about the idea.
LOSTblog: What was your process for developing the poster?
Jeff Soto: My first sketches had a six armed "Mother" holding two babies, Claudia's skull, and a white and a black pebble. I did one of two kids holding hands. I didn't really want to go so literal with it. I kept coming back to the brutal death of Claudia, and the idea of the twin brothers intertwined yet being of opposite forces. I pretty much knew going into this project that I would be taking a symbolic approach. My paintings are full of symbolism and allegory, so I treated this the same way.
LOSTblog: How did this project compare to your other creations?
Jeff Soto: It was very lightly art directed, so it was pretty easy. I have known Jensen for a while, he's a good guy and easy to work with.
LOSTblog: Besides your own, what is your favorite print from the series?
Jeff Soto: The Drew Millward one for sure, so awesome. Tara McPherson a close second, it just came out as I'm typing. Ken Taylor's Smoke Monster is pretty dope too. And actually, one of my favorites is the Little Friends of Printmaking one. I read a lot of shit talking on that one but c'mon, look at the colors, it's well designed and there's a lot of things going on. One of the few I'd frame and hang in my house.
LOSTblog: Who is your favorite LOST character and why?
Jeff Soto: I've always like Sayid. Such a complicated character. I like his history- torturer, soldier, chef, assassin. This last season kinda bummed me out. At least infected Sayid took one for the team.
LOSTblog: Kate or Juliet?
Jeff Soto: Kate, c'mon now...
LOSTblog: How will it end?
