Sunset Season show opens today
“Sunset Season,” a solo show from Dewey Saunders, opens today at Cafe Laube gallery. A close friend of the AUF crew, Dewey lives and works in Philadelphia as an illustrator creating album covers and spots for magazines like 215, Under the Radar and The New Yorker. We first got involved with this creative dude when we collabed on the Radlands Art Show at Pure Gold Gallery last summer where he was beginning to explore the cerebral effects of psychedelia and counter culture movements in the 60’s with vintage collage imagery. Now, almost a year later, he continues to expand on these themes with new technique and new meaning. He even made a super limited zine titled “Travels in Space and Time” that we are pleased to offer in our shop. We caught up with Dewey as he was putting the finishing touches on his first solo show to talk about his work. Interview after the jump!
What’s your relationship with art-ing? How long has it been a friend / enemy? I think I have always been an artist is some shape or form, I still have some prints from when I was five, a series called Fun City. Probably some of my best work. My art-ing actually was dormant for a little while in junior high school, but I was interested in photography, and always was into graphic design before I really knew exactly what it was. After high school, I took art classes at a community college for year and then went to Tyler School of Art.There I got into graphic design and then into illustration, which is what I do professionally.
Tell us a little about your upcoming show that you’ve been hard at work on.
This is my first solo show, its called Sunset Season. I have been grinding for the past two months making tons of new work for this show, collages on wood and big watercolor paintings with elements of drawing and collage. The imagery is super sixties/seventies and all the pieces are pretty trippy and reminscent of that hippy counter culture.
What’s the shows title all about?
Basically I chose the sunsets as the theme, partly as a larger metaphor for the ending of an era and the beginning of a new time period. The sun is so universal, making this the main subject matter allows the work to speak to a large audience and creates a point of focus from which the images can stem from.
Can you tell us a little about your relationship with commercial illustration compared to your more personal projects, such as shows like this one? I’ve noticed distinct differences in your works between these two sectors, but also some cross over elements/style. It’s really interesting how different my illustration work is from my collage/mixed media work. I really love to draw and that manifests itself into my illustration style, which is kind of in its own little world and has its own language and a vernacular of line. I started making collages in my sketchbook to cover up drawings I didnt like, and this interest has grown into a style of its own. Collage work intrigues me because of its graphic quality, usually photographs are used so it has a super realistic side to it, and sometimes I feel like I can catch peoples attention more with a collage. I have done some collage work for editorial illustration assignments, which I would like to do more of, but my mixed media work is mostly for gallery/fine art representation. There has been more crossovers lately between the two worlds, and I can see the two worlds uniting at some point into a sort of hybrid way of working.
Have you been working with any new experimentations or mediums that excite you right now?
For sure, I started using a new type of color, its called Dr. Higgins concentrated watercolor. I have been painting with those full strength to produces super bright, electric colors. I have also mixed brands of colored ink to get really weird textures, sometimes they create a reaction where it seperates and dries in intricate little patterns.
In “Sunset Seasons” you reveal a little world of psychedelic and spaced out gatherings and textures. Do you have an affinity for 1960’s drug culture? Also, do you recommend psychedelics for visual enlightenment?
I have always had affinity for 1960’s drug culture for some reason. My parents were pretty hippie-ish, and going through a super spiritual- vegetarian phase when I was born so I think that has something to do with it. I really love what Ken Kesey did with the Merry Pranksters, and i was pretty blown away when I read The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. Recently I have been reading a ton of Alan Watts, whose translations of Eastern ideas laid a foundation for the 1960’s love revolution. I dont necessarily recommend psychedelics,; although the visual effects of such substances are extremely fascinating and sometimes they can assist one to see the world in a new light, as a marvelously delicate dance of energy in which everything is unfolding perfectly and there are no accidents.
How long have you been in philadelphia and what keeps you here and motivated?
I have been in Philadlephia for two years, and I have met some amazing people in the past couple years in this city. I really like Philly because there is so much going on, but it is also a small town compared to NYC . Philly is a crazy place, there are so many cool people and good things happening which contrasts the extreme poverty and all the shady happenings all over the place. There is never a dull moment.
Sunset Season will be up for a month at Cafe Laube and all original works and zines will be for sale. Come check out the opening nite, tonight, 1512 South Street.
