If you see melting clocks, it’s probably painted by Dali. If you find a half-dressed woman drenched by the sun, it’s likely a snap by Henrik Purienne. You know a hazy Coppola movie before the end credits start to role. In our minds, an artist has “made it” when we can identify who’s created the work before we see the attribution in black and white. They’ve cemented a special and unmistakable aesthetic that can’t be mimicked.

Jimmy Marble’s work is characterized by pastel hues and the playful juxtaposition of fantasy and reality. He’ll make a cereal bowl out of the bottom of trousers or direct a model to eat a flower. He’ll paint naked human bodies and layer the models like clothing in front of a forest. He’ll fool around with dimensions, the forefront and the background, reflections, and lines. When we asked about the themes we recognize throughout his works Jimmy explained, “It’s a bit surreal. One thing that I really am fascinated by is conflicting emotions at the same time. So I’m always trying to have my work encapsulate two emotions trying to butt heads and create an interesting tension.”

So what’s his secret? How does Jimmy separate himself from the sea of other artists in Los Angeles? He never stops exploring or challenging himself. Sure, he needs money to survive, but Jimmy’s drive for success has also been about continuing to feed his creativity. He proves that as long as we follow our passion with a fervor, the rest follows.

Even though Jimmy has shot campaigns for the likes of Kate Spade, Nike, and Android, he’s always yearning to learn new angles and new depths, with a new lens.

It all began when he moved to Los Angeles to direct and make short stories. Jimmy started doing music videos and commercials and he used what he earned to invest in himself—in his art. Though, his creative journey took a turn he didn’t foresee: “Since making videos I was proud of was so expensive, my photographer friends taught me that I could be more prolific with less. I thought, ‘I’m already making photographs—it’s just that I’m just doing it for the movies—I’m just going to go in on this.’ So I got really obsessed with taking photos. Within a year of choosing to focus my attention on photography, I was booking work and had an agent and was further along in that career than I was after four years of trying to direct. So now I’m kind of trying to even it back out and go back to what my original goal was.”

Now, instead of sitting in the comfort of his already successful career, Jimmy is veering course again, turning back to his old love: short film. He knew the piece he would take place in his hometown, centered around people like his friends, but—like his photos—he wanted to glaze the imagery in magical realism. The project that came to fruition, End of Babes, starts out simplistic and twee. Jimmy’s camera introduces us to two charming new lovers (played by Gillian Zinser and Theo Martins) who roll out of bed to the kitchen and back again. They’re falling so much in like with one another that they don’t notice the apocalypse happening just outside their sanctuary. “I wanted to tell a story that was kind of personal and based on past experiences, like past romantic experiences. I mean now I’m married, I’m not dating anyone and I’ve found the person I’m excited about, but I used to have a really bad habit of trying to look too far into the future and kind of missed out on the present and what was right in front of me. So End of Babes was based mostly on that kind of neurotic behavior of mine.”

“It’s a brand new start for me. I’ve made something that takes place in contemporary Los Angeles, that centers around people that are like my friends. The story is full of magical realism so it still looks like my work, but it is also a lot more of a step towards realism and just something totally brand new—catch people a little bit off guard.”

Jimmy is so happy with the final product, and people are having so much fun watching it that he is now shopping a web series by the same title. While each episode will have a different storyline with a different cast of characters, all will tread lightly on our uncertain political climate. “I feel like there’s something about the apocalypse right now, in our political climate it just feels really relevant. End of Babes came out the day after Trump got inaugurated and a lot of people were messaging me and saying how it resonated with them even more because of what was going on and they were like, ‘I was so happy to watch this because of all the crap that’s happening in the world right now,'” the artist said.

Jimmy is far from done with filmmaking when his work on End of Babes comes to a close. He has three other short films in various stages of pre-production. One of those short films has been nurtured for three years now, centered around two women navigating the ’90s. “The short is only 5 minutes, but the dream is to create proper 40-minute long episodes that could be on something like Netflix or a TV channel.”

When we asked him if he’s working on anything else, he answered, “Oh my god, I’ve got some irons in the fire right now!” We can’t wait to witness where his imagination takes him next.