Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Key. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi David, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Actually I was fairly young when I came to the realization that I just wanted to be an artist. At a very young age I was fascinated by dinosaurs and fossils and after reading a book on Paleontology This book was illustrated with these superb drawings of the fossil digs and the artist would draw the excavation site and the fossils as they were unearthed and my little keen brain said to itself “Aha! I can combine the best of 2 worlds and do this in the future when I’m older!” In the meantime I drew dinosaurs and spacecraft and the Civil War and WW2. My kindergarten teacher wrote on my report card that I had the ability to combine all those interests in one drawing all interacting somehow! Wish I still had some of those drawings. As I became “Olderized” my drawings centered on drawing old buildings,mainly from my imagination. Then some “deviant” influences affected my drawing like Aubrey Beardsley in 7th grade. I bought a book at the Chicago Art Institute of his drawings including the graphic drawings he did for “LYSISTRATA” which eventually got me in some trouble at school when I was caught with the book. A few years later I discovered Underground cartoonists such as Robert Crumb and Victor Moscoso & S.Clay Wilson among others and this really loosened up my imagination and went thru a brief period of wanting to be a Underground cartoonist. Around this time while in high school I met a individual who would become a good friend Randi Neill. Randi’s artwork was instantly startling to me not only with his humorous and bizarre subject matter but his TECHNIQUE was so beyond anybody in our age group even our Art instructors were jealous of Randi’s abilities.. As for me I remained focused on a status quo,not intentionally, with my abilities. Randi gave me that kick in the butt to really work on my technique something I didn’t realize I had to do. In high school I was exposed to Lithography and Intaglio my subject matter changed radically with these bizarre imagist surrealist drawings that involved cartoon elements as well. Didn’t know it then but I had undiagnosed ADHD so it was difficult for me to complete a project and then I would just move on to another leaving the prior one unfinished. I couldn’t complete a entire comic strip so I would include “elements” of cartoons into my more “serious” works of art.. had some college Art courses under my belt but lacking ambition or more likely afraid to go out into the art world on my own I entered into the field of mental health for 45 years before retiring because of knee and back injuries because of all the physical alterations and I suffered a MAJOR loss of practically all my artwork by theft and that’s quite a story in itself. So I’m retired I’m working on producing a new body of artwork and really realize that it’s IMPORTANT for me to make my statement now and show the world what I do!

David, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I feel I have no choice in what I draw. I HAVE to draw what I draw and if I don’t do my artwork it will negatively impact me. Often I wondered if I wasn’t able to draw would these things that I draw be “trapped” in my brain cause much mental harm or do I have these ideas because I am able to visualize internally with the motor skill to bring them to life on paper? I hope I explained that clear enough. My drawings do not portray demons or such nonsense nor do they show gratuitous sexuality or violence but absurd seemingly unrelated elements in alienated landscapes or decrepit cities. I very rarely plan a drawing out or pencil first but now I’m starting to pencil certain parts of a drawing,usually a figure so I don’t have to worry about making a permanent mistake. I have been told by many people that my drawings are recognizable immediately as drawn by me that my my imprint on them is so characteristically me no one can mistake them for anybody except drawn by me and I take great pride in that. I don’t know why I draw the things that I do and I don’t really know what the meaning of these images are so are they just meaningless incoherent bizarre imagery all mixed together or is the brain really have that ability to be that shallow? I think not and so I really enjoy hearing what others think especially if the viewer is putting some real thought into their impressions. Remarks like “what kind of drugs do you take” I ignore and are totally insulting it seems some people just can’t grasp the concept of pure imagination without the use of drugs which brings me to the point of I never did drugs! No LSD or any kind of hallucinogenic but I really enjoy pretending I’m not the artist and talking to people about my drawings.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

So many things actually! Many things I no doubt haven’t realized yet or may never! First of all the main rewarding reason is when working on a drawing the realization occurs to me “This thing that I’m drawing is from somewhere in my brain and what’s the spark that gives birth to these images? And the fact this is my image that came forth from me little noggin and no one else has this thought and this image is being translated down from my brain to my hand and onto paper and it doesn’t matter if the hand translation from the brain image isn’t 100% identical, it just doesn’t matter, it’s about fun and humor and how that image changes and evolves inside my brain while I’m drawing it. When I draw it’s like a Jazz musician improvising like a John Coltrane or a Jimi Hendrix or a Eric Dolphy, I’m doing it on the spot and some of the best images are mistakes or translation errors from the brain to the hand and when I sit back and become self conscious and think about the process and of what I am creating I get happy and excited I have to take some deep breaths and think “Damn this thing came outta me!” Over the years I’ve become more religious and I do thank God for the wonderful gift he has blessed upon me and I would feel like a caca head if I squandered it. It’s an extremely rewarding experience that I think most people don’t experience and I hope that doesn’t sound snobbish and if it does….Oh well! Ha! The after the drawing rewarding experience is the critique time from other artists and other artists who I admire who enjoy my drawings now that is rewarding and because of Social Media I’ve friended many of my high school art heroes and musicians and when they see my artwork and tell me they enjoy it that means everything to me in the whole wide world! Besides drawing is cool.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes there is. I’ve never been able to self-promote myself and I don’t know if it’s from me being ADHD or lazy probably a combination of both. I’ve had some opportunities to pursue my art in some manner but for what ever reason I didn’t follow up on and I don’t know why I couldn’t really focus on it and I’m also depressed much of the time(yer gettin’ some blunt honesty here folks!) and that I believe is another deviating cause. Now I’m 71. It’s time to do this. Make my mark. My girlfriend Jill Heyn has been a HUGE kick in my butt to draw and pursue some kind of career or exposure and I’m hoping and praying this interview will be a big help. I want to thank a tremendous artist Sara Ballek, who you featured here, for recommending me to your magazine. I’ve always felt I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING IMPORTANT with my artwork but lacked the skills to do this as I was very immature but I’ve grown a lot in the passing years and A artist is to be seen with his or her works and not live out their lives in obscurity.. I’m working on several major drawings and I have high hopes they may get me some attention and hopefully some sales.

Contact Info:

• Website: I will be developing a website at some point
• Facebook: Presently I am only on Facebook under David Key.
• Other: Email: [email protected]
  Cell:630-461-2366

Image Credits

All images by David Key photo of me by David Key