Artifact 01
$60.00
AC1: Coral x Djonomg Hoodie
A hoodie developed with Djon around the visual collision of cartoons, rap music, and the memories that remain with us into adulthood.
Djonomg
Cartoons & Rap
Djon Ellams is a London-born contemporary fine artist whose work combines cartoon characters with rap music to reconnect adults with the imagination, possibility, and playfulness of childhood.
The Film
Cartoons & Rap
Artist Collection 01
Introduction
A world built from cartoons and rap
Born and raised in downtown London, Djon Ellams developed a visual language that combines the characters of his childhood with the music that carried him into adulthood.
His paintings invite viewers back into the possibility of being young, while confronting the pressure, work, anxiety, and responsibility that arrive later in life.
01
The Origin
A Childhood Drawn In London
Comic books, cartoons, city streets, and his aunt’s gallery gave Djon an early education in art long before he entered a classroom.
Growing Up
The gallery two train stops away
Djon grew up in downtown London and remembers walking through the city to his aunt’s small gallery. The journey exposed him to the raw energy of the neighborhood, neo-gothic architecture, and the many contrasts of the city around him.
Inside the gallery, his aunt introduced him to Japanese, modern, and abstract art, then gave him practical work hanging, cleaning, and storing pieces. Djon loved feeling part of that culture.
If you love something so much, don’t you want to know everything about it?
— Djon Ellams
The childhood bedroom
The First Studio
Cartoons became an escape
When Djon was not at school or the gallery, he immersed himself in comic books and cartoons. He studied character histories, worlds, settings, and details that many classmates overlooked.
Other children sometimes saw that obsession as strange, but drawing gave him company and a way to escape difficult childhood experiences. His bedroom in London became his real art school.
02
Representation
Becoming The Artist He Never Saw
Djon wants young Black artists to see that a tattooed Black man holding a paintbrush can belong in contemporary fine art.
Purpose
A figure for the next generation
As a child, Djon did not see many artists who looked like him. He often encountered celebrated artists who felt culturally distant from his own experience.
Now, he wants young Black children with artistic ambitions to recognize themselves in his path and understand that their interests can become a serious creative life.
03
The Language
Cartoons Meet Rap Music
Djon selects a familiar character, pairs it with a rap song, and creates a new memory where childhood fantasy and adult experience exist together.
Inside The Studio
Painting with the soundtrack on
In the studio, Djon paints while cartoons play and an old charcoal-grey Panasonic stereo fills the room with artists such as Travis Scott, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Kid Cudi, Lupe Fiasco, J. Cole, and Lil Uzi Vert.
The collision is the point: animation and rap are not separate references, but two emotional languages that shape the final work.
04
The Pressure
Making Art Beyond The Algorithm
Social media gave Djon exposure, but it also created anxiety and the feeling that he was making work for Instagram instead of himself.
Challenges
Posting for himself again
Djon describes social media as a love-and-hate relationship. It can connect his work to an audience, but it once made him feel obligated to post rather than genuinely inspired to share.
Stepping away helped him regain control. His goal became simple: create and post from personal conviction, not because an algorithm or audience says he is supposed to.
I’m finally getting it under control and posting for myself, not because it’s what I’m supposed to do.
— Djon Ellams
05
The Reality
Two Jobs And The Work That Matters
Djon balances employment, bills, and daily responsibilities while continuing to protect time for the practice he considers his real passion.
Responsibility
Making time no matter what
To support himself, Djon worked as an ABA therapist caring for children with autism and other special needs, while also working as an assistant design director producing creative for television and film properties.
Balancing two jobs with an independent art practice was difficult, but he remained hopeful about his potential and committed to making time for the work he loved.
When you find something or someone that you love, you will always make time for it. No matter what.
— Djon Ellams
06
The Lesson
Authenticity Over Approval
The fundamentals are not technical alone. For Djon, the work begins with expressing who you really are and refusing to let judgment dictate the outcome.
London
The Bedroom
Comic books and cartoons become Djon’s first sustained artistic education.
College
The Classroom
After focusing heavily on basketball in high school, Djon takes his first formal art classes at Glendale Community College and later Long Beach State University.
Los Angeles
The Practice
Djon develops a contemporary fine-art language combining animation, rap, memory, and adulthood.
07
The Message
Never Lose The Inner Child
Djon’s work asks adults to remember a time when imagination felt limitless and possibility had not yet been narrowed by responsibility.
When you’re a kid, anything is possible.
— Djon Ellams
Message To The World
Remember what it was to be a child
Djon wants viewers to reconnect with the bliss, playfulness, and openness of childhood. Bills, work, family pressure, saving money, and mental health can make adulthood feel rigid, but the inner child does not have to disappear.
His work is a reminder to protect that part of yourself and carry its imagination forward.
08
The Collection
Coral x Djonomg
Sango Studios and Djon translated the emotional world of cartoons and rap into a hoodie and tee connected to both youth and adulthood.
01
Collection Study
Childhood memory, worn forward
The collaboration turns Djon’s central message into garments: remember what it felt like to be young, curious, playful, and fully absorbed in the worlds you loved.
View Artifact
Artifact 02
$30.00
AC1: Coral x Djonomg Tee
A graphic tee translating Djon’s invitation to retain inner-child playfulness and imagination.
Closing Reflection
What Djon taught us
Djon’s story is about protecting the part of yourself that knew how to become completely absorbed in what you loved. Cartoons gave him a world, drawing gave him an escape, and rap gave the work another emotional dimension.
Adulthood added jobs, bills, pressure, anxiety, and uncertainty, but it did not erase the original impulse. His practice continues because he chooses authenticity over approval and makes time for the work no matter what.
Written and photographed by Kai Matsukuma.
