Jonah Roll was born and raised on 45-foot sailboat, The Flying Walrus, in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the age of 12, he moved to the Big Island, where the mythology and natural world of Hawaii saturated his formative mind. Since then, he has used painting as a means of surviving his childhood in paradise. In 1989, Roll received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland,.

Influenced by his watery beginnings and his wanderings in Latin America, Roll's work takes the viewer on a journey to surreal destinations, suffused with imagery imbedded in an original and stylized reality, that is often peopled with characters that range from the grotesque to the majestic. He has created several artworks for the public artaud.org/499/mural-17th-st.html and many of his pieces are included in private collections. His work has been exhibited in Hawaii; Portland; Seattle; San Francisco; Santa Cruz; Washington, D.C.; and New York.
Recent works can be seen on display every year during San Francisco's Open Studios. Jonah is an artist-in-residence at Project Artaud