Rockin’ Jelly Bean: The Masked Pin-up Master
Few genres have gotten the most side-eye or even defamation than pin-up art.
However, as the pin-up genre gains its rightful recognition as proper art, Rockin’ Jelly Bean is a master you should know, who has caught the eye of gallerists and collectors alike for their lifetime dedication to drawing fantasies of beautiful girls. His work simply is a spectacle to behold, full of arched backs, exaggeratedly elongated limbs, and bubble butts with a dash tongue n’ cheek humor.
He’s famous for collabing with RAW rolling papers, a stoner favorite, including bikini-clad characters on their ads and rolling trays. He also has a massive collection of illustrations compiled in his book “The Birth of Rockin’ Jelly Bean.” However, in his own words, Rockin' doesn't want his pieces to be just viewed as a pair of boobs and a butt. He sees them as characters with personalities and expansive backstories that viewers should view with a pinch of comedy.
Rockin’ himself is worthy of a biopic due to his enigmatic persona. For starters, in every public appearance Rockin’ wears wrestler luchador style masks made by the same craftsman named Mr. Cacao, to hide his identity. According to Rockin', he was caught in a nasty motorcycle accident that left his face scarred. Since then, he prefers to retain a sense of mystery, not even allowing his legal name to be known by his fans. As for his pen name? Legend has it “Rockin’ Jelly Bean” stems from a nickname his grandmother called him referencing the jelly bean shaped mole on his back.
Rockin’ grew up in Japan, moving to LA as a young adult, and founded a merch label there “EROSTY POP” with designs fusing hotrod culture, B-movie movie posters, 70s pin ups, and pop culture slock inspirations. Other than letting art be his only ode to Americana, Rockin’ is a guitarist for a surfer rock band called Jackie and the Cedrics since the early 90s.
Despite acclaim as an illustrator, he loves music equally, even when he attended art school, he’d ditch classes to practice with his band. You can see his art displayed all year at EROSTIKA a gallery with Tokyo and Nagoya branches.
