The ARTFUL DODGER (A. DEE) is widely credited with being one of the first aerosol writers to come out of the UK in the early 1980s, making the successful transition from the streets to the corporate world. This has included work for LucasFilm, BAA Heathrow Airport, MTV, The South Bank Show, and the breakfast cereal Weetabix, as well as having painted numerous backdrops, album sleeves and logos for music acts and record labels.
Whilst holding various exhibitions and spray-painting demonstrations and workshops for young people up and down the country (one, on a housing estate in South London, winning an award from the late Princess of Wales), he has also managed to capture the imagination of merchant bankers and stockbrokers in the City, securing a number of commissioned canvases in the process.
Throughout the past 20 years A. DEE's work has taken a personal evolution through the history of the letterform, from Gothic Calligraphy and aerosol writing on the streets of London, through to PSYCHOVISUALISTICS (PSY-VI) — a soulful expression of light and colour which he describes as being “VISUAL MUSIC”!
In 1994, A. DEE set up TRUE TO THE GAME to show Aerosol (Art) Culture in a positive light and establish a common understanding of its purpose and significance in 20th – and now 21st – Century Western Culture, which prompted him to both produce and direct a 2-hour documentary film on the global impact of Aerosol Culture called GET THE MESSAGE.
To date, he has continued designing corporate identities and canvases, youth culture-related logos, visuals and clothing designs, as well as promoting his own Psy-Vi work. In continuing with his efforts to keep ahead of the pack and up with the changing face of technology, A. DEE is now producing digital 3D work and concept designs for videos, and has also set up a project that teaches women how to create striking urban murals with spray-paint, called B-WRITE.
He has recently held a series of creative arts projects for 14-19 year-olds on 'Icons and Cultural Identity in 21st Century Western Culture' at the University of the Arts in London. In addition, he is currently writing a book which will partly serve as an advice guide for young people that are looking to get into the Creative Industries.
It is his intention to take the visual science of PsychoVisualistics to the world whilst continuing to create a spectrum of innovative paintings and designs that not only push his own creativity to the limit but also challenge people’s perceptions of what can be achieved in any two-dimensional space.
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