Text and photos Maren Michaelis via Dit is Fashion!
The Art of David D’Andrea is gloomy, doomy iconic and beautiful. The topics include magic, occult, mysticism, folklore and natural history. The drawings are beautifully detailed, decorative, and the writing is archaic.
On May 12, 2o12, David D’Andrea and his Irish colleague, Glyn Smyth (also an illustrator for the music business), exhibited their work in the screen printing workshop in Berlin-Neukölln.
The exhibition was relatively small, the posters hung side by side, on a line in space, their presentation rather temporal. There was a DJ and a quasi-merch booth where you could buy prints, t-shirts and stickers by the artists. The nice thing was the relaxed atmosphere, and that the two artists were on site and you could chat with them. The screen prints, which I bought, must be framed!
David D’Andrea studied illustration at the CCAC (SF, Oakland, CA) and is now one of the leading visual artists in the punk and metal scene. The young D’Andrea began with show flyers, zines and skateboard graphics, which is why he uses different media in his work, such as photocopiers, spray paint and screen printing. Today he works mainly with bands that are Doom / Sludge / Psychedelic / Stoner in orientation. Among his first clients are Oakland natives prog-rock trio High On Fire. His work for Om D’Andrea calls the most personal, because it is his favorite band. Om is a stoner-doom metal band who shares its rhythm section with the band Sleep, and whose music and aesthetic recalls the structure of Byzantine and Tibetan chants.
Meanwhile, he can expect a variety of customers, as his posters, covers and shirt designs include work for Wino, Sleep, Agalloch, White Hills, Graveyard, Intronaut, Sleepy Sun, Comus, Woven Hand, Noothgrush, Witchcraft, The Arcade Fire The Black Crowes, The Hidden Hand, Kylesa, Ulver and Godspeed You! Black Emperor had designed, but also for many festivals, including the legendary Roadburn festival in Holland.
David D’Andrea’s Studio is in Portland, Oregon. Portland is famous for its great music scene. For D’Andrea, crafstmanship is very important. He works with black ink on paper or pre-treated wood panels to increase the contrast of the screen printing, which are then scanned and the last finishing touches done digitally. He prefers rather reserved, earthy tones and subtle color shifts. His favorite illustrators are Rick Griffin, Takato Yamamoto, Roger Dean, Harry Clarke and James Jean.
Of course, his first inspirations were punk and metal music from the Bay Area and his father’s record collection, but eventually he found artists like Egon Schiele, Zdzisław Beksiński and Andy Warhol (his preference is for poster artists of the 60s). He finds his inspiration in the research of natural history and hallucinogens. An avid swimmer, it’s under water that images appear before his mind’s eye. He spends evenings with reference material, books, texts, and loves the silence, darkness and meditation.
In addition to David D’Andrea, the Irish Illustrator Glyn Smith exhibited his screen printing. Similar to D’Andrea, Smyth came through hardcore and skateboarding to draw music posters, flyers and shirts. The music that he loves? Sound, ambient, dark! (My words!)
Among his clients, he counts Wolves In The Throne Room, Melvins, Witchcraft, The Ocean, Gallows, Earth and many more.
But look for yourself!
David D’Andrea
http://www.dvdandrea.com/
Glyn Smyth
http://scrawleddesign.blogspot.de/
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