477 - Creep Week 2016: Dylan Garrett Smith

What you fear can fall upon you. Creep Week continues with Dylan Garrett Smith whose dark tones and doom laden subject matter explore the boundaries of nature and our disconnection from it. Concepts of mortality, reality, and the blasé nature of nature itself reoccur throughout his body of work and it comes from his deep retrospection. Not only has Dylan spent a life questioning authority, but had to relearn the craft of illustration when his vision began to deteriorate and was forced to wear an eyepatch. In the face of this adversity he chose to embrace it and rise to what seem like insurmountable odds as a fully realized creative on a mission to share his unique world view. Dylan's story is the long road to triumph and understanding that lends itself to his choice in subject matter, his illustration techniques, and the impact his work leaves you with.

Talking Points

  • Focusing on the light when you are so so dark.

  • The inverted band tees that spurned us on to make something better.

  • The never ending story of high school punk rock band drama.

  • The tale of the Master Hair.

  • Where does Dylan start a piece as he works into the light?

  • Working the other way.

  • Creating memorable subject matter from forgettable objects in nature.

  • The current divide from nature.

  • Perspective and personal relationships that gauge our sense of good and evil.

  • An unbiased balance in nature.

  • The strategy behind Bambi.

  • Humanity's search for a belief in something more.

  • Gravitating towards rituals and the patterns we base our life around.

  • Exploring our concept of the afterlife and it's associated imagery.

  • Mark's final moments and coming to terms with mortality.

  • Questioning authority and the path to understanding.

  • Tolerance = Bullshit.

  • The drive of a creative to create.

  • Punk Rock's DIY Ethic as the ultimate mentor.

  • Getting into Sabbath through your parents.

  • Mending complex emotional wounds at an early age.

  • Comprehending what you can't see and developing the vocabulary to talk about it.

  • Being the visual component of music.

  • The tribe mentality and sub cultures within sub cultures.

  • How will you handle depression?

  • Wearing the big shoe and the terrifying march to losing your eyesight.

  • 10 doctors and 30 tests.

  • Designing in a flat world, reconfiguring depth perception, and challenging the impossible.

  • Becoming more conscious of your brushwork as you overcome adversity.

  • Working for your work and the best "waaaaah" moment on AID yet.

  • Empowering yourself through what's holding you back.

  • Creating organically and delivering digitally.

  • The twist at the end!

  • Cool, used to be cool, and looking like someone else dresses up as one night a year.