DALEK JUXTAPOZ.COM (^) | 71
Nothing makes me madder than an artist whose work looks
like it did 20 years ago. Why would I even care to see their
art anymore? It was great 20 years ago, but I don’t give a
shit anymore. They might be popular, if not more so today,
because they’re just riding the horse. Again, that’s fine, but
I’d rather go to my grave being broke and original than riding
a cash whore and selling my soul for some buillshit. I just
want to let honest discoveries and growth happen, and I feel
that’s what is important in life—just to have that integrity.
In your 2008 Jux interview, you said your signature Space
Monkey character was here to stay. Where is he now?
The Space Monkey is still there, but I kind of reached a point
where I couldn’t push it any further and I didn’t want to go
through the motions. I felt like I was limiting myself. That’s
when I started breaking the Space Monkey apart, but that
quickly became its own burden. I didn’t want to just paint
deconstructed Space Monkeys, so that only needed to happen
for a moment to get me into this other space. Now that I’m in
this new place, I’m still figuring it out. I’ll paint an occasional
Space Monkey if it strikes me, but what interests me right now
is textures, layers, color, depth and space. People say stuff
like, “Throw a Space Monkey on top of that geo pattern,” and
I’ll think, oh, that would be really fucking stupid. But the Space
Monkey is coming back in toy form soon, and it is realistically
the best one I’ve ever made. My buddy Klim, who owns Bigshot
Toyworks, sculpted it and it feels one thousand percent right.
It’s interesting to look back at the trajectory of your work
and see how it’s matured.
I just do what I do, and by God’s blessing, the right things
find me, you know? I invest a lot of energy in my kids. To me,
that’s more important than anything, so I temper what I do
as far as putting myself out in the world. I don’t want to be
doing eight shows a year, flying all over, because I want to
be sitting in the gym right now watching my son put up reps.
My boys need me more than anything right now, and that’s
my number one driver, to be there for them. They’ll be grown
up in a matter of years, and then I can do whatever I want
again. I don’t say I’m going to hit 60 and retire. I’m going to
turn 60 and hit the gas pedal. I’m gonna be rollin’.
dalekart.com
opposite
Untitled #15
Acrylic on wood
36” x 36”
2015
above
Untitled #14
Acrylic on wood
32” x 36”
2015
tuis.
(Tuis.)
#1