The Tampa Bay mural scene is exploding and the latest one to go up is located right at Rollin’ Oats Tampa.! The vibrant, playful aspects of Jujmo’s artwork is a perfect fit for our local, organic and natural market. Jujmo brought produce to life, even including hidden smiley faces, on the wall of the entrance. We sat down with Jujmo to discuss her work (and of course, enjoy a smoothie.)

Playing Favorites

Rollin’ Oats: So, I know you had a hard time choosing this smoothie. I wanna make you choose some more. Do you have a favorite fruit and a favorite vegetable?

Jujmo: I do! I love mangoes. Um, my other favorite vegetable…Oh man. I guess asparagus?
I like asparagus a lot. I tend not to eat it too much cuz, you know. ..yeah. But it’s like definitely my favorite. But mangoes, top tier – I don’t even know what you call them, but the bright yellow ones? Those are my favorite.

Artistic Influences

Rollin’ Oats: What influenced your sort of “Kawaii” style? Because if you’re a tortured artist, we can’t tell.

Jujmo: I definitely am influenced by Asian culture and anime and stuff. I grew up in Asia: my dad was in the military, so we spent some time in Japan and in the Philippines. So like definitely see seeing all the different types of fun characters in Japan that are jus so normal, especially in grocery stores and even public spaces. They make it very digestible, you know? They turn everything into a mascot, it’s pretty awesome. Especially on the subways, teaching people etiquette, like: ‘don’t talk on the subway,’ ‘don’t eat on the subway,’ stuff like that. I really like Hello Kitty, San Rio too, I grew up with stuff like that and Sailor Moon. I try to incorporate those motifs into my style. It’s very subtle.

What’s Next For Jujmo

Rollin’ Oats: What are you most excited for next year?

Jujmo: 2023. Yeah, I definitely would like to have like an online shop and maybe do some stalls, markets, get back into that kind of stuff. Murals are just so labor intensive – I usually am dead by the end of the day and I just wanna lay down. Lately I’ve just been trying to push through and just work long nights and just start designing stuff. I really wanna make reusable bags. So I’ve just been playing around with different characters that I’ve made to see what would look best, but I’ve been very indecisive in that process. Yeah, I dunno, less plastic please!

Who Doesn’t Love A Timelapse?

Jujmo was able to complete the mural at Rollin Oats Tampa in about three weeks, which is extra impressive considering Hurricane Nicole came through during that time. If you didn’t get to catch her at work, we put together a little video to give you an idea of the amount of effort that goes into art at this scale. Check it out below and then visit our Tampa location to see the finished product.