Kunstnerens egen kommentar

Why is it called Jeff Balloonski? The name itself is a combination of a few things. The first name Jeff is a nod towards everso popular and successful Jeffs of this generation. The surname – Balloonski is a mixture of two things. The first part Balloon is a direct reference to my previously released series of balloon dogs and the balloon dog universe in general. The suffix “ski" is much more interesting and it derives from the Polish language and is very common in Polish surnames. The “-ski" is a suffix typical for many Polish adjectives, like e.g. “niebieski" (blue), “polski" (Polish), “damski" (female, ladylike) and many others. The surnames ending with “-ski" were originally adjectives. Most of them are ancient surnames of the Polish nobility. Often it derives from the place of family origin. The meaning is simply “of, from, connected with, pertaining to.". For example, the owners of the village “Kowale" (“kowal" means a blacksmith) might have the name “Kowalski" also meaning “the blacksmith's kin". Another example Piekarski might refer to a place named Piekary or something similar, but most of the time it probably started out meaning “the baker's kin." (“piekarz" means baker in Polish) Hence the noble character Balloonski is a combination of Balloon which is transformed into kin of Balloon which results in the surname Balloonski. I hope I haven't lost you with this elaborate explanation. 