Derrick Adams
Tell us about yourself.
Thanks for featuring me! I’m an artist currently living in Seminole, Oklahoma. I’m patiently waiting for the vaccine/travel ban to end so that I can resume living nomadically. I make art exploring esoteric imagery with ink on paper, inspired aesthetically by sources too many to name. I’m picking up cross-stitch and embroidery from my grandma. I perpetually have no idea what to draw next.
What's been going on in your world and circles lately?
I recently unearthed a VHS tape of my birthday in 1992 while moving things in and out of storage. I’d never seen it before! I’t really trippy viewing people you know so closely through a lens going that far back, since camcorders were only just becoming affordable at that time. My folks look so young, and you can see the ways they have changed/not changed. Now they’ve all fallen down the Q-Anon rabbit hole. My past self was speaking to me. He told me Battle Trolls were the shit.
Anything in particular you've been working on?
My ink drawings are really beginning to accumulate. I’m really digging the concept and visual language that has emerged in focusing on the lesser lights, that phenomenon that can be experienced when you can travel no further past the veil. These are represented by the galaxies I include in the negative space of my subjects.
My photography is really reflecting the isolation of covid from this time last year. No human subjects, just places in nature. I would like to approach urban exploration, again. I like sluething around the grimy parts of small and even sometimes abandoned towns. A burned building will stay a pile of rubble longer in these places. A trump flag still waving in the wind will likely be more sad, sun-bleached, and torn to bits. A giant sign pointing to a supposed motel will be just a little more likely to be pointing at a weed-infested empty lot. I don’t know that there even is a concept behind this. I’m probably just itching a scratch that involves going where I’m not supposed to go. As such, I’m obligated to tell you that these actions are dumb and potentially dangerous to do without a friend, and I would never encourage trespassing.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I was looking into NFT’s for a bit because the technology interested me. I’ve read the way that they and similar bitcurrencies are used, though, as well as their impact on the environment. So I likely wont be participating.
Other projects you see happening around that are cool?
The artist’s name is Piotr Szyhalski and the project is called Labor Camp, you can find it on Instagram. They designed and printed a poster every day during the pandemic, leading up to election day. This allowed the project to observe events of the year as they happened, including the political climate, police brutality, and worker’s rights while maintaining hope for the future. The edition is technically finished but there is an open edition of 12 designs from throughout last year.
Any stories you want to share?
I saw a really fat rat the other day.
Future thing you are looking forward to?
I simultaneously long for and dread living out of my car, again. The structered day melts away, and freedom arrives. All methods are traps, though. So we will see how it goes.
Favorite bands / albums lately?
Hi, How are You? The Unfinished Album by Daniel Johnston & the soundtrack to Blade Runner.
Visual artists (or whatever people) you've been digging lately?
I don’t know who does them, but those graphic design-y people with the tiny heads and flat colors in advertising are just swell. It’s pretty much the only art I look at.
Anything else?
All methods are traps. The path to freedom is the goal, so don't let the method define your path.
Check Out Derrick’s Instagram Here
Derrick’s T-Shirt Design Moon Jester is currently up for Preorder!
