Ones to watch: Daniel David Freeman

DDF is a guy who oozes confidence you can see that in the way he dresses, the music he plays and most importantly through his artwork. Forming part of the Crystal Vision collective DDF is a guy on his way to the top. I caught up with him last week and fired a few questions at him...

What inspires your work?

Mainly my childhood. All the toys I used to play with and still have around my room and all the Cartoons I used to watch. I keep getting flashbacks of the Fat Dog Mendoza cartoon I don't know if anyone else'll remember it? I stopped watching them when I was a kid though. I tried to watch thundercats the other day and it felt a bit wrong. It reminded me of a story I read about a paedophile. Apparently his 'large collection of children's transformer toys' was part of the evidence against him. Also movies, really cheesy movies like sleepless in seatlle. I dont know why but when I watch films that have loads of amazing imagery I find it a bit overwhelming and by the time I've finished watching them I get so many ideas they start to cancel each other out and I just worry I'm ripping off someone else's vision. But saying that my works hardly inspired enough to say I have a 'Vision.' Its so cheesy but just being happy makes me want to draw.



Your work sometimes comes across quite dark.....How was your childhood?

My childhood was the best. I used to play in my garden all year and roll around on my turtles skateboard. One of my fondest memories was riding off into the sunset on the aforementioned skateboard tied to the back of my brothers bmx as he went as fast as he could down the middle of our road until we had to stop for cars which usually
resulted in being flung into a curb.

What comics would you recommend to people who know nothing about comics?

For artwork Charles Burns' Blackhole. Although the storys pretty lame so for story and artwork it has to be Daniel Clowes' Like a velvet glove cast in iron. They are both super easy to get hold of I got them from Foyles.





What do you love and hate about the art scene?

Most of the people I know are loosely involved in it so its nice that I can be around like minded people. But considering how many people are 'involved' there seems to be very few of them are that are actually producing work. But maybe thats not true maybe I see it that way because I'm not as actively involved as I should be - I rarely go to any exhibitions. So actually I suppose I could say I don't really feel I'm enough of a part of it to comment on what I love and hate about it.

With so many people claiming to be an artist do you think London is a good place to be an artist?

I mean Its good because you can meet all the right people to get your work seen and build up a reputation reasonably quickly but its easy to get stuck in a rut. You can end up just doing work for people who already know you. It seems really dumb that I have the internet and a website and can reach anyone in the world but 90% of my work is through friends of friends. I suppose thats why I need to get an agent but I don't know if my work is that sellable yet.



Whats next for DDF?

Just starting to promote my next night 'QUESTION OF LIFE 2.' Its going to be tough as the music on the night isn't going to be to everyone's taste. I mean I know a lot of my friends will love it and there are endless people out there that do its just finding a way to reach them. I've got a guy from soundway records to come down and play a 2 hour set kind of showcasing what they do, which is 'Unveiling forgotten chapters from some of the world's most vibrant musical cultures' http://www.soundwayrecords.com/ .
Got Jess from Elmore Judd to do much the
same and the usual suspects crystal vision and hampus from top nice. I can't wait for the party but really don't enjoy the actual promoting side of it all. Drawing wise doing a feature for my mate shane on his new site www.sweetandsound.co.uk, doing some work for a kids magazine okido which I'm really excited about and I got a drawing coming out in the next dazed.



What cant you live without?

I wish I could say something really cool like, 'my portable record player and my cro mags record' but its probably just tea and cigarettes.

Favourite piece of clothing in your wardrobe?

My moschino alphabet shirt or my original 1984 Marvin Gaye tribute
concert tshirts.

More information and work can be found on his site...
>>>Daniel David Freeman.com<<<