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[ April 03, 2000 ]
During the early stages of his career, an art rep offered Eric Dinyer some truly memorable advice. "He said my work was too dark and personal," recalls Dinyer. "He told me that if I wanted to make a living I needed to paint photo-realistic racing cars with Budweiser logos on them." Ten years later, Dinyer is a successful artist/illustrator with a long list of clients such as Time-Warner Books, Columbia Records, The New York Daily News, Newsweek, TVT Records, Playgirl, Raygun, Penthouse, St. Martin's Press, Doubleday, and many others. Dinyer is also the recipient of the Silver Medal and a member of the Society of Illustrators NYC. In addition to appearing in the Communication Arts Illustration Annual since 1984, Dinyer's work has also been profiled in Communication Arts and Graphis magazine. Recently, Dinyer's digital art and illustrations have been featured in magazines as diverse as the Seoul, South Korea-published Design Net Magazine, and Frankfurt Germany-based Lurzer's Archive. Remarkably, he accomplished this without painting a single beer logo.
 Can you recall a particularly influential image-something that affected you at a young age and put you on your current career path? I have vivid memories from my early teens of seeing a book of war photography by Don McCullin at my local library. I studied those pictures for hours and hours. In addition to being very disturbed by his haunting images, I also had a very visceral response to them. In some respects, McCullin's work made me aware of the power of images and their ability to transform. Subconsciously, his images solidified my interest in trying to do work that has emotional resonance. What do you do for inspiration? Inspiration is an elusive commodity, especially when you work in a commercial context. For me, commercial work and inspiration seem to run in different directions. When my phone rings and I'm given an assignment it isn't like the inspiration fountain suddenly begins to flow. What seems to work better for me is to generate a lot of work outside of my "commercial work," then plug those discoveries into my assignments. However, even that seems to be getting more difficult to do because there are fewer outlets for really creative work. Which of your accomplishments are you most proud of? My education. I come from a family without a history of formal schooling. In fact, I'm still the only person in my family that holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees. It was to the chagrin of my father that I sought a university education, so I worked my way through undergraduate school as a waiter. It wasn't particularly easy but I'm grateful for all of it. When I got to graduate school I won a scholarship and that made things a little easier, but graduate school, for me, was also a difficult & demystifying experience.
The cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Ghost of Tom Joad" CD is probably the most mass exposure I've had in a single project. During last year's Thanksgiving weekend, with Springsteen's authorization, I donated an image for use on a t-shirt and sweatshirt which also featured a Springsteen lyric to World Hunger Year. WHY (World Hunger Year) has been an effective force in fighting hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world for 24 years. To have my work used in conjunction with an event of this magnitude, force and good will is really a dream come true. If anyone's interested, the t-shirts are still available for donations at www.hungerthon.org. Also, a year ago, Showtime bought the rights to re-create 8 of my images as TV bumpers for their SCI-Fridays science fiction show. I have also designed interfaces for part of Sting's CD-ROM, "All This Time." This summer, some of my images will appear in a scene from a major Paramount pictures feature film.
Over the years, I've used my beautiful wife, Christine, as my main model whenever I can. Also, through the influence of Rembrandt, I use the expressive Chiaroscuro effects of light and shadow. Additionally, my work plays upon the landscape of psychological topography and attempts to create a world of dreams and nightmares based in part on the words of poets, like Rainer Maria Rilke. Tools of the trade? I just got one of those Mac G4s with the cinema screens, and I have a little gray limited-edition Imac. I also still use my old Power Mac 8500. Photoshop 5.5. is my main software. Tell us about some of your future projects In addition to continuing my illustration career, I joined forces in 1998 with designer David Decheser to form "Dreamless Studios." Dreamless Studios was created as a forum to explore the boundaries of the visual narrative beyond the still image. We teamed up to create immersive visual imaging, video, and design projects for both ourselves and a select group of clients, all of which will employ an unexpected amalgam of ethereal avant garde imagery and uncanny graphical vocabularies. Dreamless Studios is a place where David and I can push the boundaries of our own work without the requisite confines of a strictly commercial studio and then re-deploy those discoveries commercially for clients seeking unique creative solutions. You can visit the Dreamless site at www.dreamless.com. Tell us about a career-defining moment Things really changed when Communication Arts did a feature article on me in the 1996 Illustration Annual. After that my phone really started ringing a lot. My eyes started twitching more and I began consuming vast amounts of coffee just to keep up with everything.
- Contributed by Michael Moses >> See other member spotlights on the artist spotlight index >> Find out more on how to become an altpick.com member |
