 Profiles: Art > Dennis Dread > Gallery |
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I'm not exactly sure which the first piece of art that had the Dread mark on it that I got my hands on, but I know for a fact that the poster included with the "Apathy and Priviledge" LP by Axiom really got my attention. A big fucking poster with amazing art - naturally I framed it right away. After a couple of years stumbling across several recordsleeves and posters done by Dennis the art stopped coming, at least to my house. It wasn't until the Hellshock/Consume split 7" that I re-discovered Dennis and has since thought about featuring him in a profile here on the site. So, to say I'm proud to present one of the sharpest artists in music today is not really neccesary, you'll understand that yourselves. Krogh, March 2006
BORN My name is Dennis Dread. I was born at home in 1972 and raised in Ossining, New York. Ossining is a suburb along the Hudson River about 40 minutes north of the Bronx. My hometown’s claim to fame is Sing Sing prison, which was known as the “Death House” because more than 600 prisoners were executed there while the electric chair was in use from 1891 until 1963. That’s where the popular American expression “up the river” comes from. If you got busted in the city and sent upstate to Sing Sing, you were fucked. If you grew up in Ossining, you were also fucked. DREAD I started drawing at a very early age. I used to draw Godzilla a lot and copy pictures out of my older brother’s ‘Famous Monsters of Filmland’ magazines. I gravitated toward metal at a young age probably because the sinister album cover art was an extension of the scary monster films I loved. The early work of Derek Riggs, Away, and Ed Repka are still big influences. Similarly, I bought my first Misfits record because of the creepy cover art and that served as my introduction to punk. From there I soon discovered the emerging NYHC bands such as Agnostic Front, Cro Mags, Sheer Terror, Underdog, and Carnivore. Later I met the editor of 'Death Thrasher' fanzine at a horror convention and he introduced me to fastcore and a much more extreme brand of crossover. That same year, 1988, my drawings were first published in a tiny horror movie 'zine called 'Scareaphenalia'. They looked horrible but I was very proud. A few years later I began silkscreen printing for an underground t-shirt company called Mutilation Graphics and this put me in touch with a broad range of extreme musical and artistic influences. These were difficult and lonely years but I learned a lot and worked hard to improve my drawing abilities. It was while I was printing at Mutilation Graphics and studying literature at a nearby State University that I first began deliberately creating larger and more elaborate drawings with ballpoint pens. I don't remember why, but it was probably just a happy accident. I have never had money to afford expensive materials and I have never let "learning to be an artist" get in the way of my art. Ballpoint pen is a very fun and direct medium and it probably initially served to overcome my nearly paralyzing fear of blank paper. I started signing my drawings with the name 'Dread' about ten years ago, around the same time that I relocated to Portland, Oregon. I had long dreads for many years and when I travelled people often referred to me as "Dennis with the dreads" or simply "Dennis Dread". I enjoy the name because there is sort of a tradition of underground artists (and hobos, but what's the difference really?) taking up funny names like Pushead, Mad Marc Rude, Graham 'Ghastly' Engels, and Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth. Even Bill Elder, one of my favorite EC comic artists, was actually born William Eisenberg! For me the fun names just enhance the excitement of the art! At this point I’ve done ballpoint drawings for Engorged, Phobia, Autopsy, Abscess, Frightmare, Axiom, Warmachine, Harum Skarum, Abigail, Machetazo, Hellshock, and Consume. There may be more that I've forgotten. My work continues to improve and I feel as though I'm really just getting started... THE BATTLE FOR ART! I do get paid to draw and my rates are probably not the cheapest around. Every drawing is customized according to the specific project or purpose. It takes hours and hours of meticulous work to build up textures and shading with ballpoint pens and I pour my blood and soul into every piece. If you want free art or crappy art, please don't contact me. But I have also done my share of unpaid art and I still occasionally work out trades. Especially if a band RULES and aren't swaggering idiots. This isn't a business and I'm not in it to get rich, but I value my time. Most bands and individuals who contact me know exactly what they are getting and have no trouble with my rates. I am always open to exciting collaborative ideas. But I also feel it is my task as an artist to distill the energy and emotion of a project to create a vision. I realize this may sound pretentious coming from an artist who tends to draw beer-drinking zombies, but when a band asks me to create an album cover they are not simply hiring a craftsman to illustrate their lyrics or concepts. They are commisioning a creative relationship. So I tend to work with people who respect my ability and instincts (and sense of humor) enough to trust what I draw. It is often frustrating to work with bands who devalue original art and crank out releases with little thought of how it looks or what message is being conveyed through poor quality or careless design. Even though poor quality and careless design are the benchmarks of punk, one has only to look at Gee Voucher's work for Crass or Jeff Walker's work for Napalm Death and Axegrinder to see that punk art can be so much more than a hastily xeroxed war photo. Many of the record covers that I cherish and that hang on the walls of my basement drawing room are not necessarily "good drawings". But they have a spirit and a passion that seems to have spilled directly from the artist's hand. As far as I'm concerned, that is what great art is all about. And it is in that same spirit that I sit and attempt to create memorable and exciting drawings to this day. I urge everyone to support underground artists. Pay them! Especially punks who still equate money with "selling out". If the typical punk band redirected their weekly drinking funds toward art, they could afford an original masterpiece in a matter of days! And trust your artist's instincts. If they lack creative vision, you shouldn't have asked them in the first place. DESTROYING ANGELS In an effort to celebrate and support the invisible empire of international underground artists, and great obscure art in general, I have been self-publishing an art fanzine called Destroying Angels since 1997. Destroying Angels hails both the established forefathers of the underground art movement as well as the lesser known soldiers battling in the trenches of obscurity. In the tradition of true D.I.Y. publications, Destroying Angels is entirely written, cut & pasted, xerox copied, collated, and mailed by me. It's a real labor of love. I seem to put out a new issue about once a year and I only print a few hundred copies of each one. But I want to emphasize that this is not meant to be "old school" or "nostalgic". There is no age more desperately in need of the soulful nuances of hand-wrought art than the present and no day more ripe for the arrival of REAL underground art! Anyone interested in checking out back issues of Destroying Angels should feel free to contact me through my website. I also invite anyone who wishes to communicate or discuss an art project to contact me. Thank you for your interest in my art, Krogh! It is an honor to be featured among such amazing talent. "Every shadow of doubt...GRIND IT OUT!!!" Dennis Dread 2006 www.dennisdread.com  |
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