MR. DVICE’s involvement in art began at a very young age with graffiti as his medium. Graffiti not only allowed him to express the many things going on in his head, but it served as a form of therapy as well. Soon after he sought alternate canvasses and began painting and creating more conventional studio art. MR. DVICE resides in Encinitas, CA, where he paints characters he appropriately named “goons” which he states are pure expression and emotion. Currently, he is the Art Director at Dragon Alliance which is an eyewear and accessories brand in the active youth lifestyle market. MR. DVICE is one of the featured artists creating live art at Neon Desert Music Festival and Fusion had a chance to speak with him about his goons and his thoughts on art.
What does art mean to you?
To me, art is simply a way for me to process the chaos that my life is always overcome by; everything moves so fast. I don’t know how else to deal with it except for to turn the chaos into images. To me, art is an outlet. It’s my escape from reality. When I am painting, it’s not logical. Of course, I am not a very logical thinker anyway. It’s pure emotion—the lines, the colors, the faces. Everything adds up to a story of the world that is spinning around me, spinning out of control. If I can harness a little piece of it and immortalize a moment in my head on a wall or on a canvas, then it is real. My work is soaked with insomnia, cartoons, wine and weed. It’s my distorted view of the world around me, with a psychedelic twist. Art is the only pure thing in the world to me because it is a world without rules. I have never been a very big fan of rules anyway. In fact I hate them. With art, no one can tell me what to do, how or when or who with to do it with. It’s the only place where there are no consequences for my actions. Creating art is a nervous habit, my addiction. Painting to me is like dreaming; it’s out of my control. Without art, I don’t know what my place in the world would be. I would be lost.
Why is art important to a culture?
Art is important to any culture because it defines history. Every type of person—from posh families that circle the polo fields of Rancho Santa Fe on weekends, to the inmates locked up in a California State Penitentiary, can relate to art. It tells a story of reality mixed with surreality. It is the balance of the opposites that becomes something completely original to the world, a new creation that is brought to life, fueled by life.
I am inspired by culture, inspired by times of the past that I was not alive to experience, inspired by the pop culture of 50’s 60’s, and 70’s, inspired by revolutionary thinkers like Timothy Leary, Joe Strummer, Martin Luther King, Zack De La Rocha, Hunter Thompson and Jim Morrison. Besides the cultures that I grew up around like skateboarding and punk rock, my experiences with hallucinogens and the underground rave culture of the late 90’s most definitely has had a huge effect on me as an artist and a person. Those were some crazy times—anything went. No words can really explain what it was back then unless you were there.
What is your first memory of art?
My first memories of art were sitting in elementary school classrooms drawing ninjas and warplanes instead of studying in my math and science classes. Ninjas were always my favorite for some reason. And my dad was an air force fighter pilot so I would always hear his stories about air to air combat training when I was young, and I turned his stories into notebooks full of jets and dogfights and explosions. He was my hero, and he still is. My grandmother was also an amazing artist. As a child I would hang out in her studio and sneak around through all her supplies, sketches and paintings in progress. She was a beautiful soul, and will be an inspiration to me forever.
How did the name MR. DVICE come about?
Growing up in Southern California, I was always into graffiti, so having an alias was normal. Back in the day I used to write RUKIS. When I first started putting paint on canvas instead of tunnels and yards, I was painting lots of stuff about our vices of life: drugs, sex, loose behavior…all things that we are told not to do, but we all want to. The series was called D.VICES for (Dave’s vices) . Somehow the subject kind of stuck with me, and the MR. DVICE name came to be.
How did you develop the idea for your signature character?
With the MR. DVICE alias, I developed the icon because I have always been a huge fan of symbolism. From Egyptian hieroglyphics to the legends of the illuminati, I love images that tell a story without saying it. The icon I developed as my logo tells a story of the duality of my personality: the smile defines my stoke for life, the sinister teeth define my creepy side that no one gets, the explosion from the forehead is a symbol for stream of consciousness. This is the way to me art is natural. Creation without too much thought.
Tell me a little about your goons.
I paint goons, creatures of the night. They are the gremlins in my head. They are pure emotion. They never stop multiplying. Sometimes they turn on me and its gets ugly—Varmints. They are not to be trusted, rotten bastards. I keep painting goons in fear of my own boredom. The goons take on a life of their own, one that I do not control. They paint themselves. Sometimes I wake up and don’t even remember how they got there or where they came from. If I am not constantly creating armies of the little creeps, I start to drown in my own loathing and self pity. I like to lose myself in their world and try to stay lost for as long as I possibly can. Goonieville is the only place where I am truly free.
TEXT: ALEX DURAN
