Joel Christopher Payne (Born 1971) is a native Californian. His story starts with a life-changing moment at the age 4 that would change the course of his life forever. The earliest memory that inspired his career came when he was riding on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. While at it he looked up to his mother and said, “Look mother! Look how real the robots are,” at which point his mother replied without hesitation, “Son, those are the waiters at the Blue Bayou.” It was in that moment that he realized just how amazing Walt Disney really was. He couldn't tell difference between the real thing and the fantasy and he knew that he wanted to learn how to harness this kind of unique magic. The Disney and Disneyland feature animation ignited a lifelong passion in Payne that led him to inspire others through his own style of breakthrough art.
At age 20, he embarked on a career that would last for 22 years. He didn’t have any formal artistic training; he had to forge through the fires of experience on the job. When he started doing digital art, computers could only handle 16 colors, but his passion brought him to design elaborate worlds for Triple “A” video games, three dimensional TV shows, and multiple virtual reality ventures. His big break came in 1993 when he came from a company called “New World Computing.” His talents were manifested while building the worlds for 6 video games over the next several years. “Heroes of Might and Magic,” his very first game project became critically acclaimed and is currently on its seventh sequel. Payne began pursuing a fine art career in earnest in 2011.
