A Bracing Conversation with Dennis Larkins
Artist in studio. photo credit: Anson Stevens-Bollen
Dennis Larkins went to the Kansas City Art Institute, and after graduating, he established a painting career in Santa Fe, NM. He gained recognition in 1970s San Francisco, designing and painting monumental backdrops for legendary rock promoter Bill Graham's "Day on the Green" concert series. Artists from Led Zeppelin to The Eagles to The Rolling Stones performed in front of Dennis' monolithic designs, products of an experimental time.
Since then, Dennis has created a large, eclectic body of work, from graphic design and illustration for the Grateful Dead to theme designs for Walt Disney Imagineering, Warner Bros., MCA/Universal, and Sega GameWorks, to name but a few.
In addition, through the personal vision of his fine art career, Dennis explores the collective unconscious with retro-pop surrealist imagery, blending traditional painting techniques with sculpted, three-dimensional relief to create disturbingly immersive microcosms constructed in layers of metaphor.
I had the pleasure and honor of asking Dennis if he could use one word to describe his career, what it would be, how he wants to be known through his artwork, and so much more.
1980 Grateful Dead/Radio City Music Hall poster
UZOMAH: You have worked with the Grateful Dead for LP covers and posters; what is the most impactful part of the Dead's music and cultural scene that impacted how you created artwork for them?
DENNIS: For several years throughout the 1970s, as legendary rock promoter Bill Graham's stage set designer, art director, and scenic artist, I created numerous theatrical concert settings for most of the major musical groups in the San Francisco Bay Area scene, including the Grateful Dead. So, in 1980, when I was invited to design concert event posters for the band's appearances, first at San Francisco's Warfield Theatre, quickly followed by similar shows at New York's Radio City Music Hall, I was thoroughly familiar with their graphics and iconography previously developed by such great poster artists such as Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelly, Rick Griffin, Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso and others since the late 60s. I intended my design to synthesize that rich legacy. This work led to my album cover for the Dead in 1981, "Dead Set," live recordings from both venues.
"Monsters Of Rock" Day On The Green stage set 1979 Photo Credit: Baron Wolman
U: You designed and painted monumental backdrops for legendary rock promoter Bill Graham's "Day on the Green" concert series. What do you see differently in how things are created visually to go with music today in terms of art?
D: I was in a unique position with Bill's "Day On The Green" concert extravaganzas at the Oakland Stadium, working closely with his lieutenant, Peter Barsotti, on concepts to essentially create huge-scale public art of my own design and in my own style, only constrained by the limits of budget and deadline. For nearly a decade, the now legendary "Day On The Green" stages were my personal canvas. This unusual circumstance resulted in a body of unique hand-done public art never to be repeated. These were also largely daytime events, so lighting and/or special effects weren't typically a big part of the presentation, unlike today's shows featuring much more highly developed technologies.
"The New Normal", 18"H X 24"W, painted three-dimensional relief on canvas
U: If you had one word to describe your artistic style, which would it be and why?
D: One word for my personal work would be "immersive." I create complex 3-dimensional (painted low-relief) environments and scenarios, combined with illusionistic painting techniques, intended to draw in the viewer and engage them in a "decoding" of allegorical and metaphorical triggers, utilizing deconstructed retro-pop cultural narratives.
U: How has art been a tool for expressing yourself and your views?
D: Through the use of these techniques mentioned, I can create an interactive dialogue that allows for feedback specific to the viewer’s filters and perception, completing a communication loop that enhances and expands on whatever my original intention for the work may have been.
U: What do you want to be known for artistically when recalling your career?
D: I would like my legacy to be an example of the value gained from allowing the widest variety of artistic influences, challenges, and opportunities over the course of a creative journey as a method of helping to define and inform an ultimately unique personal vision. What I create now is the net result of all that I've created and experienced before, and every new moment is a "launching pad" for the next evolution from that accumulated perspective. Nothing is wasted, and on it goes.
The Birth Of Rock", 24"H X 18"W, for Moonalice/Lock'n Music Festival
U: How do music and visual arts go together? How do you use art to make that connection?
D: Simply put, I think that all forms of art are related efforts of our "inner creators" to communicate thoughts, feelings, and sensations through our various bodily senses to those same "inner creators" in others for the purpose of interacting, creating a complete feedback loop. Since music primarily utilizes hearing as its vehicle and the visual arts engage the eyes and sometimes touch, they work extremely well in combination. Obviously, the more senses that are simultaneously engaged, the greater the effect. And then, if stimulating ideas are injected into the mix, you've really got my full attention!
"Cross Purposes", 36"H X 24"W, painted three-dimensional relief on panels.
U: What is the greatest lesson you have learned from creating art?
D: The greatest lesson I've learned is that art and ideas transcend the seeming limits of time and space. That we're all affected in sometimes profound ways by the creative energy of those who have gone before makes this manifestly obvious. And that by continuing to create art, I continuously expand my potential to connect and share with others, including perhaps beyond my own time/space continuum.
U: Your use of vivid colors that literally pop off the canvas goes hand in hand with the layers of pop culture references. How do the color choices go hand in hand with the layers of metaphors in retro-pop surrealist imagery?
D: The use of color and color combinations are primarily useful as sensory triggers. Similarly, the use of narrative (story) to trigger the memory, emotional responses, and engagement and, in the case of my work, 3-dimensional and tactile (sculpted) physical content are all powerful tools to help create what I call the "bridge" the means by which a viewer can more easily immerse themself into the world(s) embedded in the art. If the narrative content is open-ended enough to invite viewer interpretations and engagement (this is where metaphor and allegory come in) and begin to make the story their own, then a kind of co-creation is achieved, completing the interactive loop. The art becomes a shared communication device.
For more information about Dennis’s artwork, please visit his site, and also you can find him on Instagram.
