SLIDE features Dave Dickey’s hand painted original art

” What Dreams Are Made Of ” by Ryan A. Smith

David Alton Dickey can paint the wave scapes we see in our dreams.  Lush hillsides, sandy perches without a footprint in sight, a stacking set of inviting waves peeling down an empty, desolate point set-up.

He can create the kinds of heavenly, psychedelic skies – vivid, streaking colors that bounce rainbow luminance off the ocean’s surface and back up to the friendly clouds– and private beach scenarios that beg you to spread out the towel, unfold the beach chair, and pop open a frosty Corona.  David Alton Dickey has been a full-time, working artist and a presence in Southern California’s stacked art scene for more than a decade; Dave, by choice, has done it all on his own terms, under the radar, coalescing (and always attracting more members for) a refined group of friend and private collectors willing to wait in line for lengthy periods for a multi-dimensional David Alton Dickey original painting.

 ”Fire in the Sky”

A completely self-taught artist, Dave began making pencil drawings as a kid, living along the coast in Los Angles County.  Admittedly, much of his middle and high school years were spent dedicated to art instead of the teachers’ lessons. “I would draw during tests and pay attention to my classes just enough to do what I had to do to get a good grade,” Dave, reflecting states, “but not really.” Things changed following high school, though.  Dave moved to Maui immediately after graduating.  He decided to give the artist’s life a go, in a beautiful place with great waves, focusing daylight hours on his art and surfing before paying some bills at night with a restaurant job. Eventually, Dave was able to quit the restaurant game and paint full time, where he’s been ever since.

Extensive travelling opportunities from Southern California to the Caribbean Sea’s Lesser Antilles island arc, the heart of Central America, Japan, and, of course, the Hawaiian chain, have allowed Dave to experience and soak up much of the beauty he later expresses on canvas.  Completely by design, when Dave travels he really goes.  Often leaving town with little more than a bagful of surfboards, a few irreplaceable painting supplies, and a small load of clothes, Dave does not vacation, but stays in these tropical places for several months to a couple of years at a time, living, painting, surfing.

Currently leasing a beachside flat in Mission Beach, California, fresh off an extended stay in Maui, Dave already has a new plan to move to a spot relatively fresh on the known surf map, (I promised I would not tell the name here) another warm water wave destination with blowing palms and sun enough to tan whenever it shines.  He will live there, too; very possibly, he’ll build a house in the region. (Dave is also a talented woodworker and frame maker.) Live, paint, surf.

Dave is a humble man, stoked for what he has and what he is able to do.  He donates many of his paintings and canvas prints to raise money during charity auctions, and has plans to establish a non-profit organization to help the unfortunate.  A chain of family and friends in Southern and Central California help him maintain a welcoming home base in the Golden State.  When at home, Dave works constantly on a series of privately commissioned originals, furnishes print and product requests, and handles a vriety of business ventures.  All of his efforts are conducted with the sole purpose of earning enough to gather the necessities and replenish the bank accounts and credit cards for the next journey.

Thanks, in part, to Dave’s near nomad status, he has friends, fans, and collectors (and ex-girlfriends) around the world.  He has been a part of exclusive, invitation-only showings from Texas and California to Tokyo, won special awards, and his art is celebrated on the dwelling walls of sports and rock stars like professional hockey star Rob Blake, Pearl Jam from man Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, and Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend Kurt Rambis.  During his latest stint in the Hawaiian Islands, Dave’s genuine nature and mesmerizing art caught the attention of Laird Hamilton and his wife Gabby.  While living there, Dave was blessed to have learned some of the finer points of riding stand-up paddle surfboards from Laird, the man, taking long sojourns together around the fishbowl-like island coastline. “It allows me to surf everyday.  It’s been really good for not only exercise but for inspiration.  I’ve been able to see cool views of the reef that I never could have seen if I were lying down.”  Laird and Gabby now have a David Alton Dickey original and a stack of prints inside their stylish Maui outpost.

Dave’s ongoing serioes of exotic waves and seascapes are built with a few guidelines: no humans, no buildings, but primal nature.  Considering his artworks, he says, “I have to keep trying to paint something that’s pure, keep my guidelines of not painting people or manmade structures.  Because, if I start doing that, the next thing you know I’m painting a smokestack and pollution, and I go staright there in my mind, so I have to stay away from it all” With influences stretching from Rick Griffin, Bill Ogden, and Phil Roberts to Japanese Ukiyo-e printmakers like Katsushika Hokusai, Dave’s art must be viewed from different distances, from a museum glance to a detailed look, enabling the patron to appreciate a blending of broad to miniscule brush strokes that leaves him or her asking, but how does he do that? – RS