The whirring of gears and pistons, the whimsy of fantasy, and the grit of the street kid made good, all combine into the art of Dale Mathis. A giant of a man with the heart of a poet, the mind of a master watchmaker, and the imagination of a great surrealist.Dale Mathis’ mixed media, high relief sculptures and design objects defy the typical classifications of any art. The fantasy designs of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne coupled with an artist that any generation would be proud to call its own...
The whirring of gears and pistons, the whimsy of fantasy, and the grit of the street kid made good, all combine into the art of Dale Mathis. A giant of a man with the heart of a poet, the mind of a master watchmaker, and the imagination of a great surrealist.
Dale Mathis’ mixed media, high relief sculptures and design objects defy the typical classifications of any art. The fantasy designs of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne coupled with an artist that any generation would be proud to call its own.
Dale Mathis’ sculptures and design objects are commanding, not just artistically, but physically. A “typical” Mathis work is mechanical, with moving gears, back- lighted, highly sculpted, often near 5' long by 4' wide and weighing at 80 lbs or more. Art imitates life, or in this case the 6’3”, 300 lb artist who creates them. Bigger is better in the world of Dale Mathis.
His creations also speak from the heart of the discordant struggle of urban American life. Born Dale Charles Mathis in 1972, and raised in Inglewood, California. His was a childhood surrounded by gangs and crime. His family and art from the earliest ages shielded him and drew him to the path less traveled. Growing up in Inglewood, he always had a desire to be like MacGyver, taking things apart and not trying to put them back together but finding creative new uses for the parts.
Deeply inspired by artists Salvador Dali and Edmonia Lewis, Art was his escape into another reality he could create for himself. He is a truly self taught artist.
Shortly after his 19th birthday he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where he worked a variety of odd jobs as a construction worker and strip club bouncer. Finding commissions as word of this exceptional artist grew throughout the Las Vegas community, the sparks and pangs of invention, creativity, and brilliance coming from a need to survive for he and his young daughter.
Seeking to break with the intensity of urban life and find solace and focus - Dale has established a new life as an artist working half of the year from his studio in the Philippine Islands. Where the idyllic environment, people, culture and love of art have embraced him as he has them.
Dale is featured in galleries throughout the United States. His work has seen on MTV’s Cribs and The Real World Las Vegas, HGTV’s Crafters Coast to Coast, and features have been written in Playboy Magazine, the Las Vegas Review Journal, and international watch Magazines in Europe and Latin America.
Like Norman Rockwell, Seuss personally created every rough sketch, preliminary drawing, final line drawing and finished work for each page of every project he illustrated. Despite the technical and budgetary limitations of color printing during the early and mid-twentieth century, Dr. Seuss the artist was meticulous about color selection. He created specially numbered color charts and elaborate color call-outs to precisely accomplish his vision for each book. Saturated reds and blues, for example, were carefully chosen for The Cat in the Hat to attract and maintain the visual attention of a six-year-old audience. By the time Seuss’s book career took off, sharp draftsman skills were evident in drawings. His ability to move a storyline ahead via illustrations filled with tension, movement and color became a hallmark component of his work, and the surreal images that unfolded over six decades became the catalyst for a humorous and inspired learning experience.
Artist Leo Rijn, the inaugural sculptor for the Dr. Seuss Tribute Collection I, was selected to launch this project due to his prized work with some of today’s top talent in the world of film, entertainment and the visual arts (including Tim Burton, Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg). Rijn has been identified as one of today’s brightest sculpting talents because of his ability to breathe life into the written word and successfully transform two-dimensional ideas into three-dimensional works of art. Universal Studios commissioned Leo to develop and oversee the creation of numerous maquette scale models for the Monumental Dr. Seuss Sculptures at Seuss Landing in Orlando, Florida. Leo was instrumental in the art direction for many of the sculpted characters and buildings now on display at this permanent Seuss attraction. His strikingly accurate Seuss works embody a masterful and intuitive Seussian sensibility, establishing him as a leading talent in interpretive sculpting.
Seuss embarked on an ingenious project in the early 1930s as he evolved from two-dimensional artworks to three-dimensional sculptures. What was most unusual for these mixed-media sculptures was the use of real animal parts including beaks, antlers and horns from deceased Forest Park Zoo animals where Seuss’s father was superintendent. Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy was born in a cramped New York apartment and included a menagerie of inventive creatures with names like the “Two Horned Drouberhannis,” “Andulovian Grackler,” and “Semi-Normal Green-Lidded Fawn.” Shortly after Seuss created this unique collection of artworks, Look Magazine dubbed Seuss “The World’s Most Eminent Authority on Unheard-Of Animals.” To this day, Seuss’s Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy remains as some of the finest examples of his inventive and multi-dimensional creativity.
Illustrator by day, surrealist by night, Seuss created a body of irrepressible work that redefines this American icon as an iconographic American artist. Yet, the Secret Art often shows a side of the artist that most readers, familiar with him through his classic children’s books, have never seen. This collection, created over a period of more than 60 years, encompasses the entirety of Seuss’s multi-dimensional talent. The artistic golden thread highlighted throughout this collection is apparent in each wildly imaginative and surreal Secret Art image. The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss is an inimitable collection of artworks created at night for his own personal enjoyment. These works were rarely, if ever, exhibited during his lifetime and provide a deeper glimpse into the art and life of this celebrated American Icon.
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