“There were a couple times during this process where I thought my idea wasn’t going to happen at all. This whole thing was supposed to be a lucite embedment. I found out I couldn’t do an embedment so was I just going quit? I hit a major roadblock. This thing was not going to happen. The tapes would melt under the heat and pressure. And I took that failure and sat back and just started having conversations with people I love and trust and a friend of mine brought up crystal. So through a failure, it turned out to be the biggest success about the project, was like – if I hadn’t hit that failure, this thing would have been made out of acrylic with some plastic boombox parts on the outside. So you gotta go with the flow. You gotta keep pushing until you bring that vision to life.” — David Schwartz
Today on the NOT REAL ART podcast, we welcome multidisciplinary artist David Schwartz, AKA DVS, to talk about his most recent foray into physical art, his memories of working with Prince, and the fruits of never giving up on a creative vision.
David is a songwriter, graphic designer, art director, and visual artist, and while he was sleeping in his car after he got out of college he also started hanging out with Prince and ended up collaborating on Daisy Chain.
David has a fantastic career in graphic design and art direction, with a resume that includes creating websites for Hollywood movies and television shows Zoolander 2 and The Office, and album artwork for 2 Chainz, Paris Hilton and a slew of Gucci Mane covers.
After a long list of challenges, David recently realized his latest artistic ambition, a 1200 pound sculpture called Rhyme Capsule consisting of a marble hooded figure holding up a cut crystal boombox encapsulating 180 authentic Hip Hop tapes released between 1980-2000.
David tells us how he got the idea for such an ambitious piece, how the project evolved from an initial concept involving a plinth and lucite embedment, and some of the many struggles he underwent while creating it.
David also takes us back to his memories of hanging out with Kip Blackshire and developing a working relationship with Prince, and the lessons about bravery and commitment he learned along the way. Tune in for a fantastic episode.
Key Points From This Episode with David Schwartz
- The hustle of making art and the sacrifices David make pursuing his art.
- Balancing commercial work and his personal art.
- David’s love of old school hip hop album covers and how he got into design.
- How David drew inspiration from LA Art Week, hip hop tapes, and a lucite embedment for his art project, Rhyme Capsule.
- The evolution of Rhyme Capsule and how the planned materials changed while working out how to accomplish it.
- Embedding hip hop tapes into crystal after many different iterations.
- Find the right person to embed objects into crystal in NYC.
- Meticulously designing the sculpture digitally.
- Trouble around contractors taking creative liberty on David’s design.
- The boombox aspect of the sculpture and how David added its coolest features
- Timelines for cutting the crystal and flying to NYC for the finishing touches.
- How David got the idea to mount the sculpture on a Greek-style marble statue.
- The challenges involved in outsourcing the cutting of the statue and shipping.
- Deciding what tapes to embedded tapes in the sculpture and sourcing them.
- How Prince might react to Rhyme Capsule.
- How Prince made Dave a better artist.
- How David met Prince and ended up working with him.
- Commercializing Rhyme Capsule: Opportunities, pricing, and more
- How people have responded to Rhyme Capsule and David’s plans to show it.
- David’s plans to expand Rhyme Capsule and lessons he’ll apply.
- Lessons David learned about successes in failure through this process.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
David Schwartz — https://davidmadeit.com/
David Schwartz on Twitter — https://twitter.com/david_made_it?lang=en
Rhyme Capsule — https://rhymecapsule.com/
Aston Martin — https://www.astonmartin.com/welcome
Gucci Mane — https://www.guccimaneonline.com/
2 Chainz — http://www.2chainz.com/
Prince — https://www.prince.com/
Art Basel — https://www.artbasel.com/
LA Art Week — https://www.artweek.com/events/tags/city/los-angeles-art
Rose Bowl Flea Market — https://www.rgcshows.com/rose-bowl/
Pretty In Plastic — https://www.prettyinplastic.com/
Swarovski — https://www.swarovski.com/
Tupac — https://www.biography.com/musician/tupac-shakur
Nas on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/nas/?hl=en
Jay-Z — https://lifeandtimes.com/
Digital Underground — https://www.allmusic.com/artist/digital-underground-mn0000258276/biography
Zoolander 2 — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1608290/
The Office— https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386676/
World Class Wreckin’ Cru — https://www.discogs.com/artist/1458-World-Class-Wreckin-Cru
NWA — https://www.biography.com/news/nwa-where-are-they-now-straight-outta-compton-
Dr. Dre — https://www.drdre.com/
Jacqui Thompson — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquithompson/
Atron Gregory — http://newtntmanagement.com/team_member/atron-gregory/
Melrose Trading Post — https://melrosetradingpost.org/
The Grove — https://thegrovela.com/
Amoeba — https://www.amoeba.com/
Paisley Park — https://www.paisleypark.com/
Kip Blackshire — http://www.kipblackshiremusic.com/
Bob Marley — https://www.bobmarley.com/
Morris Hayes — https://newpowergeneration.net/morris-hayes
The Universal Hip Hop Museum — https://www.uhhm.org/
Paris Hilton on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/parishilton/
Chaka Khan — https://chakakhan.com/
Larry Graham — https://www.allmusic.com/artist/larry-graham-mn0000130402/biography
Daisy Chain — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1tW8ja3QG4
Man One — http://www.manone.com/
Man One on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ManOneArt
Scott “Sourdough” Power — https://www.instagram.com/sourdoughpower/
Not Real Art — https://notrealart.com/
Not Real Art School — https://school.notrealart.com/
Not Real Art on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/notrealartworld/