_{By Darcie Roy}

John-Ross Boyce is infusing fresh energy into one of the oldest tools of event marketing. The posters he designs to promote concerts at Provo’s sole alcohol-purveying venue, ABG’s, serve as a weekly rotating, city-wide gallery of his work and set him apart from the city’s other talented artists.

“I know it sounds daunting, the whole once-a-week thing, but everything about it makes it not a chore at all,” says Boyce. “My real clientele work, when I’m under the gun for that, that’s when I get a little more stressed out. But ABG’s is like pure joy.”

Boyce’s personal distribution of posters around town allows him to meet new people and engage with the community, consequently generating more commissioned work opportunities.

“It’s good business because people inevitably go, ‘Are you the guy that does these things? Because we want you to do blah, blah, blah.’ There are so many good things about it. It’s probably the best career move that I’ve ever made in my life.”

Boyce fervently pours his art career into the crevices of his waking hours, balancing a full-time janitorial job and studies at UVU, while also handling talent booking for ABG’s and barback shifts on weekends. Though he does have a studio, the bulk of his work is created while on the move with an iPad, in quiet corners of shared and public spaces.

Boyce credits the high-volume output of his artistic grind for the development of his ever-evolving style, which is currently what he refers to as Narrative Cubism, Emotional Cubism, or Comic Cubism.

“I very recklessly decided to be a public artist well before I probably should have. But just like a child star, you have to grow up fast,” he says. “When you thrust yourself into public attention, you’ve got to start evolving then and there. One of the defining characteristics of my art career is me going, ‘I bet I can do that.’ And then just trying it out, in public, and gauging the response.”

Much of his earliest work could be described as provocative, grotesque, and even perverse, reflecting his desire to connect with fellow eccentric outsiders.

“The only bit of chagrin that I get about a reaction to my art is that there are some things that I intend to make beautiful, at least to my definition. Sometimes it gets frustrating to hear, like, ‘Oh, I love your stuff because it’s so gross!’ I don’t think that it’s impossible to marry the two. What I think is the most beautiful is being a human being, and human beings are [h*cking] disgusting.”

Boyce’s Instagram account serves as a living gallery of his work, with many posts accompanied by process videos. He values the non-commercial aspect of the platform, viewing it as a tool to gauge his art’s resonance.

“Instagram is a good place to see—outside of capitalism—what connects with people,” Boyce says. While most of his clients provide minimal direction and are usually excited about the first piece he delivers, designing the weekly ABG’s posters gives him true freedom. “I get to draw whatever I want unless they say, ‘Well, the city says it’s illegal to put tits on the poster.’ And I can tell that it was a good one when I go around the next time and I don’t have to tear as many down. Somebody has already taken it.”

Boyce designs the posters for ABG’s Friday night events, but he also books the bands (and barbacks on the weekends). As a longtime professional musician, he has graced its stage countless times. Despite shifting his primary focus from music to art, the bar remains close to his heart. 

“That’s my spot! That’s my bar, baby! That’s my venue, man! If there’s one musician in town whose spectral image is going to plod across that stage in the wee hours of the witching hour, it’s going to be my corpulent ghost. I want the shows to be good and I want people to come. I am trying to book interesting and good bands so that people will come to our venue. There’s always one to two spots for a good local. It’s a community resource, it belongs to the community.”

To bands hoping to perform at ABG’s, Boyce says, “Different doesn’t mean bad. I want to hear your original stuff. I want to hear what you have to say.”

There’s no shortage of original music in Provo and Boyce understands the driving force behind it. “It’s a two-college town. People come here and they learn a lot about themselves . . . There are a lot of people who are going through a lot of big questions beyond the normal collegiate experience.”

This is the reason, he says, that Provo is a unique place musically. “A lot of really good, interesting music comes out of here. And I’m not even talking about the stuff that people talk about when they talk about Provo being special, the stuff that people know about outside of Utah. I’m not talking about Joshua James or Neon Trees, or anyone like that. I’m not denying their intensity in their own right, but there are a lot of interesting, amazing things that happen here as a result of where we are, who we are, and everyone getting together and seeing it.”

Boyce himself still squeezes in time to create music.

“I’m currently working on two music projects. I play bass, write lyrics, and help with the vocals for a doom metal band called GLOSSA, and I’ve got my own little project, MEGARITUAL. It’s synth-doom, I guess, or poppy synth-doom. I think of myself as an old crooner at the edge of the dystopian universe.”

The GLOSSA record is set to be released in 2024. Boyce will perform more as MEGARITUAL in non-bar venues. When it comes to his art, Boyce is more hesitant to disclose projects that may be in the works but is open about his aspirations.

“I want to be in rich people’s houses . . . My dream is to someday have enough time and money squirreled away that I can really focus on a comic or a series of paintings—just any one of thousands of things. Someday, I will break out of commercialism only to start marketing my dreams instead of other people’s.”

In the meantime, Boyce’s promotional posters signal to Provo’s residents that something remarkable is underway in the Provo music scene and that ABG’s is at the heart of it.

“Don’t sleep on Provo,” says Boyce. “There’s always some really interesting stuff here. And don’t just settle on what everybody else is telling you is interesting.”

Make sure to follow John-Ross Boyce on Instagram. You can also follow ABG’s here for news on their Friday night shows. You can hear “BLOOD MOON” by GLOSSA below.