Today we’d like to introduce you to Geoffrey Dicker.
Hi Geoffrey, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
After years of writing about art when I lived in New York (over a decade ago), a colleague said, “why don’t you stop writing about other people’s art and make art yourself?” That comment changed my life. I didn’t know what form it would take, so I started writing books. When trying to get published, I was told not to hop genres and that was too confining for me, so I decided to self-publish my books. 12 books later, I have never ended up on the best-seller list, but I have a core group of fans who are really moved by my work. I’ve written poetry, short stories, a play, and several novels and I released a satire about a pandemic 3 months into Covid. At the time, I was trying to be as ridiculous as possible and so many things in the story came to pass in real life.
At the same time, I have lived in apartment buildings (in LA, NYC and Chicago) where I was strictly prohibited from adding color to the walls, so I bought some canvas and added color that way. I’ve dabbled off and on with painting for over 15 years, but I got serious about it when I was trying to help myself get over a bad breakup. I told myself, “every time I feel sad about this relationship ending, pick up a brush instead.” After some time, the wounds healed and I had created over 50 paintings and counting. I decided not to stop creating.
The challenge I face with being independent is that it is up to me to find new eyeballs to check out my work, and admittedly, I am not very good at it. However, once someone gives my art a chance, I tend to find they like it. So I just keep moving forward because I strongly believe that somewhere along the way, I will find my people and they will find me.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
On the smooth side, being independent, I have complete freedom to do whatever I want. No pressure or deadlines from anyone except what I impose on myself. Because of that, everything I release is 100% from my heart and is not created with financial gain or an endgame involved. I have written the lyrics for several albums of music which were recorded and one of the songs even ended up in a movie!
The challenge is getting people to see my work. There is so much to choose from with social media these days, it’s hard to shout above the noise.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am an abstract painter and I also write books. My first book came out 15 years ago and I’ve released 11 others since. I am known for hopping genres and having a conversational style that is humorous and to the point.
My paintings can (and are strongly encouraged) to be moved around to fit your mood and change the vibe of the space where the painting is located. My paintings can be hung in any direction and should be moved around as often or as little as the viewer wants. I love to change colors, canvas size and sometimes make multiple works that can form one large painting.
I am so proud to create with complete freedom and I think it shows in my art.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I am a native of Los Angeles (but I had a 13 year love affair with New York and two years with Chicago). You cannot beat the weather here, especially having lived through so many brutal winters on the east coast. The food is great in Los Angeles, there is so much culture and you can find yourself having a life-changing experience if you are open to taking a trip into the unknown. We often have gorgeous sunrises/sunsets and overall, I find that people in Los Angeles are very friendly.
Since I came back in 2020, I am saddened to see a major increase in crime and homelessness. It seems that we should have so many more resources to fix these problems, but they just seem to be getting more out of hand. The traffic is another negative quality about Los Angeles, but I always tell people visiting from out of town that it looks worse than it really is.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.geoffreydicker.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/according2g
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/geoffreydicker
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/according2g
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@According2gcomPresents
Image Credits
Photos by Geoffrey Dicker
