Daily Inspiration: Meet Joe Havasy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Havasy.

Hi Joe, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Joe Havasy, A.K.A. Cutesturbing. The name Cutesturbing was coined by a friend who said my work is both “Cute and Disturbing” and it stuck. I’ve been creating art ever since I was a child, and started working professionally around 2002 when I began having shows in downtown Athens, GA. I worked as a cartoonist for the local free paper “the Flagpole” and opened my Etsy store in 2004. I’ve been selling paintings, prints, stickers, magnets and t-shirts all over the world ever since. I’ve always maintained a full time job as well, so that’s definitely been a challenge, but it also allows me the freedom to create the work that I desire to make. One of my friends told me I should create the art that I “want on my wall” and that’s been my philosophy ever since.

My art is heavily influenced by a variety of things including my love of animals & science, comic books, and the art of others. In recent years I really have been focusing on creating the absolute best pieces of work possible and taking my time. I’ve also been vending at local art markets and festivals. In the summer of 2024 I had a major breakthrough, as I met Dosa Kim and started attending his weekly art meetup “High Contrast.” Hanging out with other artists weekly has challenged me to create more meaningful work with a higher degree of quality. It’s also given be a better sense of community in Atlanta and allowed me to take part in a variety of shows in the past year, and I even got to paint my first solo mural in Mechanicsville as part of the Atlanta Crossroads Mural Festival. I’ve also recently been revisiting my old comics and reposting them on Instagram and Tik Tok, and I’ve been developing new comic strips that will be posted at a later date.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Some of my biggest struggles have come in the form of injuries. In 2017 I slipped down some icy stairs and broke my drawing hand, and I thought that I would never be able to paint again. Luckily, I healed…

Flash forward to Cinco De Mayo of this year, a cyclist hit me from behind while I was walking on the Silver Comet Trail with my mother, and the fall broke both of my arms. The cyclist was looking at his phone and not paying attention. It’s been a grueling 12 weeks to recover. I highly recommend getting a police report if you’re ever injured by someone, it was basically a hit and run… The cyclist walked away fine and did not provide any contact information!

Injuries aside, my biggest struggle is making sure that I make time for art every week. There are so many distractions like social life, eating, exercise, sleep, and video games that can get in the way, but I make a point to keep creating and moving my art forward. It takes a lot of self discipline and sacrifice to be a professional artist and work a full-time job. Unfortunately many of my full-time artist friends are struggling right now so I’m thankful for my safety net, but also a little jealous of their freedom!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My specialty is creating clean, detailed, cartoony, paintings and illustrations. I utilize pencil, ink, markers, acrylics and sometimes work digitally. My artwork usually has a little bit of bite or sarcasm. Some might say it’s edgy. I am comfortable doing cute commissions from time to time if they peak my interest, however mostly I just make the art that I enjoy. Often my work features pop culture characters with my own unique spin. My most recent solo show “Crushes” featured paintings of my favorite characters from pop culture. I’m a huge movie buff, I love video games, animation, and comics. I am also a huge lover of art history and am constantly looking at the art of the past for inspiration.

My style is the culmination of all of my favorite artists styles remixed in my own way similar to a Quentin Tarantino film. You can see little things I’ve stolen, but it’s uniquely my own. I also pride myself on being able to work very fast and hit deadlines. I’ve been in quite a few shows in the past year where I just had a week or two to create a piece.

One of my greatest skills is my ability to draw out of my head, if I’ve looked at a reference before and drawn something it’s kind of hardcoded in my memory for later. I love being able to just draw without looking at anything to help. I still do look at reference from time to time though. Drawing from life is also very important to my practice. Figure drawing was one of my favorite classes in art school.

I also very much love creating illustrations that are like “Where’s Waldo” with tons of things for the viewer to look at. I don’t want anyone to be bored when they see one of my paintings. I work very hard to make sure every tiny detail is clean and professional. Even though my work can have darkness I also always want there to be some humor or optimism. I want the people who see my art in a show or visit my vending table to walk away with a smile.

I’ve also recently gotten into photography more and documenting the Atlanta art scene. My personal photography instagram is @joehavasy

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I think the best thing I can recommend is to come to our weekly artist meetup High Contrast at Eyedrum. (Tuesdays at 7:30PM) You’ll meet a lot of friendly people that love to nerd out about art. From there you’ll always have some friendly faces at art shows and likely they’ll be able to introduce you to some of their artist friends. I think finding the right mentor can be hard because you have to find someone that you really vibe with, that also has a similar style or things they can teach you. If you want that mentor to take you seriously, you have to prove to them that you are constantly working and trying to get better. If you don’t do the homework, your mentor is going to be disappointed in you and ultimately it may not work out. The really cool thing is, there are tons of creatives in Atlanta so if you need a mentor I’m sure you can find one. Many artists are also lonely and need community. Creating artwork is often a very solitary practice, I think that’s what’s so special about our weekly meetup group, we can get together and draw, and talk if we want to!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.joehavasy.com
• Instagram: @cutesturbing
• Other: Tiktok @cutesturbing

Image Credits
All Images by: Joe Havasy