Artist seeing the big picture with caricatures

In 2025 Rojet Glave, an illustrator by profession, decided to take caricature art seriously.

But some of the feedback he received was enough to make anyone question whether they were on the right path.

“Being told that I shouldn’t do it and that people are not going to be interested in it really was a driving force for me,” he said. “Getting that kind of negativity pushed me to do more, focus more, and sharpen the skill.” Now Glave is using social media to put his caricatures in front of Jamaicans and people overseas. The 43-year-old Kingston-born artist, who attended Stella Maris Preparatory School and Jamaica College before graduating from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts with a Diploma in Fine Arts in 2008, said he has been drawing since childhood.

“I won some competitions when I was in Grade Five. One memorable one was an international peace poster competition. I won first prize regionally and second prize internationally,” he said. But art was not initially seen as a viable career option.

“I never took it seriously because I guess the old man wanted me to be more traditional in my career choice. The idea many had then is that there is no merit to art as a career. Everybody wants their kids to be a doctor, lawyer or banker,” he said.

Glave eventually chose art, doing odd jobs after high school before enrolling at Edna Manley, where he studied graphics and painting. But, even there, he said, he encountered resistance to his artistic style.

“My radical nation aesthetic was seen as problematic for the more Afrocentric lecturers, but there was one lecturer who appreciated that. So I did not lose hope in pursuing my style,” he said. “I like to experiment. I’ve always been that way.” His fascination with the human form eventually shifted to faces, which he said he finds fascinating.

“The face is the first thing that you see when you’re in contact with a person. If you see a smile, you like it. People communicate with their faces. I just find that interesting,” he said.

After seeing portrait artist Jeffrey Perry doing live portraits, it sparked his enthusiasm and, after consulting with a friend who worked as a caricature artist, Glave began experimenting with caricatures of social media personalities and people he knew.

“The reactions are amazing. They like it and the reception is also welcoming,” he said. Glave has also spent the past four years building his own business, Imprint Digital Caribbean Ltd, which allows him to combine his creative skills with his experience in printing and digital production. Last year, AI-generated caricatures became popular on social media, with Jamaicans using prompts to create caricatures. Glave, however, does not believe the technology poses a serious threat to artists like himself.

“AI doesn’t have a soul, it doesn’t have a personality, and those are very important character traits for an artist. Sometimes you see things that people don’t see for themselves. While creatives can do something unique, AI is just picking out something that was fed, and I am not threatened by that,” he said.

The artist said that he is still figuring out exactly where caricature art will take him and now, he is deliberately using social media to build an audience.

“I’m being more strategic about who I draw and how I post. I also target social media entities because I think that’s where Jamaicans will see and relate to my work,” he said. “I’m basically doing them for free right now because I find that people really love the caricatures, even wanting to print and frame them.”

He opined that people in Jamaica are interested in caricatures, illustrations, graphics and comics.

“If you look at how popular anime has become here, that should tell you something. There is an audience for this kind of art. So, if you have an interest in it, do it. Don’t let the fact that you’re different or that people don’t understand what you’re doing deter you from pursuing what you like. You have to be willing to be different and still go after it.”