Q and A with Dan Parker

Dan Parker answers some questions for Lincom Art Scene! Take a look!

Bio. Tell me about yourself and the medium you work in.

As a kid I loved drawing tiny figures and creatures, all sorts of scenarios and monsters, and also loved to think about the adventures or stories that might go with them. It’s the best kind of play – creating something. The difference between me and possibly most other people – is that I have carried on doing it – although allegedly I am a fully functioning adult 35 year old now! I admittedly came back to drawing after a bit of a gap in my twenties, but I think that maybe I was just getting mentally ready and moving to that level where confidence would allow me to show work publicly. I’ve never studied art officially, and that probably shows in some ways, but in other ways I think that has given me a certain freedom of expression. I will use any tools I feel like at any time, and I dont always create ‘by the rules’, because I don’t know what the rules are! I have drawers full of pens, pencils, brushes and knives, watercolours and acrylics, spray cans and pastels, as well as a hoard of random bits and bobs I have come across. I’ve used sweet wrappers, potato stamps, broken records, and even the lining out of a pair of trunks to create whatever I need for the task at hand, however most people define what I generally create as being vibrantly colourful, stupidly detailed, and more often than not full of secret meanings and hidden treats to discover. I do use a lot of technology as well for collaging parts together with my fiddly linework, although I’m just as happy with a straight painting too. I sort of follow an “enthusiasm over technique” ethos to a certain extent – but I don’t think that matters too much!

How did you get started on your path as an artist?

I’m not sure I ever started on a path as an artist – perhaps as a creator – but not necessarily an artist. From mid teens I was big into guitar and being in bands, did film and media production at uni, and then hit the world of work. I suppose that I re-developed into an artist as a way of carrying on ‘creating’ in this new different environment. Turns out that the environment was a music shop, and the art was scribbling on paper bags until I slowly realised that this was what I wanted to be doing. Also turns out bosses are not so keen on that approach, and expect a days work out of their staff, and not an ever increasing pile of doodled airships, elephants and floating castles.. 6 or 7 years later – here we are. I just use better quality bags now and have to buy my own pens.

What is your inspiration?

Influenced by the films, album art, posters, and book sleeves I enjoy the most, I in some way attempt to recreate my very own personal Twilight Zone. Some of my images have back stories, or are a morphing of existing ideas and phrases. Some are just possibilities or visions pulled from some kind of parallel universe! I’m inspired by turns of phrases, things said accidentally, and lots a material from sci fi and pop culture genres. I am just as inspired by prog rock album covers and sixties book sleeves as I am by ‘artists’. I really like Dali and Magritte – but also love my weekly fix of 2000ad and its neverending stream of crazy inventions!

What is your favorite size to work in?

Most people would probably say I like to work tiny, which is true, however the finished product is normally a whole lot of tiny things mashed together which eventually makes some kind of migraine inducing behemoth at the other end! Most of my works ends up as A3 prints – but I will go larger for special orders, and much much smaller for painted commissions. Sometimes people want paintings just a couple of inches square, some times they want the full bells and whistles. I can go either way.

You are exhibiting at the The Jolly Brewer, can you tell me about the works you are showing there and why you chose them? Do you have any particular themes you are exploring?

I have displayed work several times at ‘The Brewer’, and its become somewhat of a personal ritual that every so often I pull together a collection of new works and debut them there together. This current print collection displays six new never-before-seen works from 2012, as well as three paintings which were previewed recently at an art stall I ran at The Brewer in August. I’ve titled this collection “Can I get that to Take Away 2012”. These prints are some of the very first editions of my new works – and they all want to begin beautiful new relationships with people’s walls, and “Yes” – you can get these to Take Away!

The piece I am most proud of in the new collection is “We Serve Your Kind Here”, which is a vague reference to the fact that droids were not welcome in the Cantina bar in Star Wars IV. In my world robots are most welcome indeed, and I’ve created a positive mega-medley of sci-fi references in this image for people to dissect and keep revisiting. You dont have to know your sci fi inside out to enjoy the picture – but if space and robots are your thing – then pull up a pew, you’re going to be looking at it for quite a long time. People may have briefly seen it already – previewed in the Lincolnshire Echo just before the exhibition started late Sept. However, unless people regularly have microscopes kicking around at home, they really need to get down to the Brewer to see it in its A2 glory to appreciate the true fiddliness!

I also have a literature thing going on as well, with some nursery rhyme and nonsense poem references hidden throughout the works, and of course an elephant and 2 windmills. Anyone who has seen any amount of my work before will know that windmills always tend to sneak in somewhere – normally peeping out of the background – and will of course also know that it is tremendously unlucky to exhibit an art collection without a ‘feature elephant’ somewhere. Its just something I do.

Lincoln Art Scene thanks Dan Parker for a fab Q and A! A great read!To find out more about Dan, visit his facebook and website;

http://www.facebook.com/DanevilParkerArt
http://danevilparker.deviantart.com/

Or email him for furher information or enquiries about his work, danevilparker@hotmail.co.uk