Artist, musician, influencer, mentor... is there anything Denny Preston isn’t great at?

Facebook: Dennis Preston

You're listening to Art Happens Here, the podcast that explores the often curious and occasionally amazing art installations on, in and around the campuses' Lansing Community College. I'm your host, Bruce Mackley.

Denny Preston, welcome back to Art Happens Here.

Hi, everybody. I'm back.

He's back. We were just discussing more shared history that we have, you know, State journal, editorial cartoons and such.

Denny's creative footprint has been all over the map, regionally and probably wider than that. Have you done anything nationally other than your self publishing and your music?

I mean, is there anything that exploded, anything that went broader than you thought it would?

Well, I think sometimes T shirt designs, but as far as nationally, I don't know if it's an explosion. I can't say an explosion, but there was some work that I did for a company and this was like straight out of high school too.

And what it was is like teaching aids. And at the time, I, I, from what I understand, they were teaching aids, more developed for kids to bring them out of themselves.

It was more of a communication thing. So there might be people with special needs or something like that.

Yeah.

And so I, I would draw these things for this company and it was owned by a professor from MSU and his wife. And then. But the thing was, it went international as far as they started selling these AIDS in other countries.

And I don't know if it was for the same reason or whatever, but the main thing with all these drawings I did, there wasn't any words, it was all visuals.

Okay.

And so like anything that was in there, it was to help people internationally.

They wouldn't have to translate it in multiple languages. They could market it laterally, unilaterally. Yeah, yeah.

So that was, you know, as far as nationally, that went international. And there's other things that I've done that were used like in other countries and stuff, but I don't know, as far as being national, I don't know.

Well, there was a magazine I used to do some artwork for and that was a national magazine and. But it was based out of Lansing here. But even with that, the, Some of the topics and the guy was causing some, Some what? Did not.

Would you say causing waves? What would you say? What's the word for it?

Waves. Okay.

Causing waves.

Causing waves. Making waves. Making waves.

There you go.

So wave.

Making waves. It was more of a political magazine.

Oh, yeah.

And so that's why it was making waves. And so some of the things that I drew in there was making waves. And like, I don't know, I'm Not. My mind isn't. I'm not, I'm not the kind of person.

You're not a polarizing person. Is that a good way to say it? Yeah. You're not, you're not going to dig your heels in and try to like, upset anybody. I don't think.

I've never seen that. I don't, I can't believe any aspect of your work doing that intentionally.

Well, no. And it's. I know it's in me to be able to do it, but I don't do it. You know, I know how powerful a graphic could be.

You know, so I am not, you know, I, I guess I'm. My mind is in a place where I just, you know, it's not, it's not. I'm. Oh, geez, I can't think of the right words. Visualize. No, you're.

You're chill. You're just chill.

Is that what it is?

You're chill? You are, you're. You're Denny Preston and that is, that's who you. I, you're universal. And.

Well, now it, I, I call it like, it's a cross between tap dancing and a minefield and a high wire act because.

Wow, I wouldn't want either one of those.

Well, hey, you know, you know how polarizing some social media can be and opinion, you know, opinions start flying. And I think we all know by now that the engine that drives social media is engagement. And there's no better engagement than hatred and arguments.

There you go.

That fuels it. And it's all engineered. It's all designed to lean into that. And that's part of the reason we're in the predicament we're in today. And I'm not.

It's not just me saying that. It's kind of, it's kind of the thing and it's. I hope we can evolve out of it somehow. You know, take the high ground.

High ground's good.

High ground can be good.

Heights are bad. High ground's okay.

Yeah, you can beat the waves if you're on the high ground.

There you go. You can stand up on the cliff and watch the waves.

Exactly. What are you most. Is there anything that you're most proud of, project wise? Is there a single effort that you've done?

And it doesn't even have to be limited to artwork. It could be music. Music's a type of artwork. It's.

Is there anything that you look at and you say, yeah, that's really representative of me, you know, it's.

And I Know, you probably get it too. Probably a lot of artists get it where things don't come out the way you visualize in your brain.

And so it's hard for me to pick out some things that I really like. I do have maybe two or three things that I've done that I've gone, oh, I really like that. One of them is a concert poster of Charles Mingus.

I like everything about that.

Yeah.

Yeah. It was like, you know, the illustration, the layout, the hand lettering.

The only thing on there that wasn't hand lettered was the logo of the stables. And that was actually, you know, not their official logo. It's just a font that I came up with that I used on there with dry transfer letters.

But, yeah, that one I like. There's parts of other things. Yeah. That I really like.

I can't think of too many things where I am totally going, wow, I really liked how that turned out.

Yeah. Your own worst critic. Another creative that's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fine. You know, I went to an exhibition of yours.

I was over at Mica, and this is stuff I hadn't seen. Do you ever sleep, by the way? I mean, is that a thing with you? Because I see so much come out of you. You're so prolific, and everything is so good.

Thanks. No, it is. The Mica stuff was even next level. I'm looking at these. The colors and the depth, and just the sheer imaginative scope of your work. It.

Stand there and just stare. It. It's. Anyway, it speaks for itself. That's the only thing with this. This podcast. It's a.

You know, it's an audio about visuals and trying to convey that, you know, if you haven't seen the artwork of Dennis Preston, take a minute, you know, type in his name, and boom, you'll. It'll explode.

Well, is. It. Is. Can you say where they can see stuff?

Well, just Google your name. Okay. I was Dennis Preston artist. And the interviews would come up. The artwork, your gallery.

Well, yeah, they'd have to put artwork

or art because there's another Dennis Preston.

Yeah. I don't know if he's around anymore, but he. He used to get phone calls for me and get mad.

Oh, brother. Well, crossover. Like he wants rights. Did he want you to stop using the name?

Oh, he's mad that so many people called him Other. And, you know, he's. He was a professor out to MSU for a little bit. He was professor somewhere else, too.

Oh, like, really close.

Yeah, he was a language kind of professor. Or something wrote books. So yeah, had his name out there. So.

So people, if they are looking me up, for sure they'd have to put artwork in there or they could put music, but mainly the cartooning, illustration, artwork. And then things would come up.

They would come up. And now you and I both predate history in graphic design. You're probably a decade ahead of me, age wise or so.

But we go back to a time before computers. Imagine people before computers, before email, any of it. All of it was, was handcrafted. They had these giant cameras that you walk in.

It was actually not to get too far into a film. Key lines, stat cameras, stat cameras, all of that that you do traditional artwork with the pens and the paints.

Is there any part of the digital world that you've, you've gone into other than obviously the social media stuff? Do you. Any programs that you like working with or do you just kind of.

Well, this, this will tie back into LCC. There was, we were, you know, the class was going on and then Sharon Wood popped her head in and she goes, hey, I'm gonna start teaching this class.

Is there anybody in here that would like to try it out? You know, and the program was Painter. And then, you know, she was asking me if I wanted to take it.

And I'm going, geez, I don't know anything about computers. So I go home and talked to my wife about it.

She goes, well, you might as well try it and see, you know, see what you think about it, you know, and because the Painter program was developed by artists. And so I'll go, okay, you know, I'll try it and see, you know. And like I said, I don't know that much about computers back then.

And so I'm in there taking this class, learning how to look at a screen and drawing with your hand off on a tablet and looking up here and seeing things happen.

And so Sharon was really good in teaching this class and I'm there doing this and she saw what I was doing and like, she goes, would you like to teach this class? And I'm going, no. So a week later she goes, would you like to teach a workshop in it?

And she said, you don't have to cover as much and if people really like what they're getting into, they can take the class and learn more. I said, okay, I'll try that.

Wet their interest a little bit.

Yeah. So I was teaching that and at that time I had a student that was helping me as far as technical things.

If anything technical came up, he helped Me, but he said at that time, he goes, den, if you like painter, I think you'd like Photoshop. And so I didn't take a Photoshop class, but I would ask people about Photoshop and learn that way and just a hands on thing.

So going back to your question, yes, I do use a computer to color in things. Do layouts now. Go in and make corrections on drawings, undo things. Yeah, oh yeah. Working with layers and.

Yeah, but I only use as much as the program that I need to use. But it's the kind of thing where it's really helped out a lot because we talked about the stat cameras and now you just scan your artwork.

You know, I, and I do a lot of that. I'll do a black and white drawing and then I'll scan it at a 1200 res.

Yeah, blow it up, go for the detail and correct little things, add the color and then boom, you know, camera ready, you know, just send somebody the file. You know, you're not working with all of these little laid, you know, with a clear plastic and a ruby lift and all that.

Yeah, chills, chills.

Ruby lift, man. Yeah, that and for format film.

Oh, and the press type.

Yeah.

Oh man, look, my skin is actually crawling.

See, look at that go.

Yeah, I just.

Yeah.

And.

Well, the early days of computer computing, we, where I worked at the time, an agency, you know, they bought us one that sat there with dust on it for two years nobody wanted because we were like using markers like demons. You know, we'd marker up comps and in the learning curve. Plus the printers weren't supporting it yet, so.

Plus the processing even like years after that in Photoshop, if you wanted to rotate an image, you'd go to lunch or you'd let it do it overnight because it just took. It's nothing like it is today. No, nothing like it is today. There's, there's no issue with space now. There's no issue with, with file size now.

They don't, you know, these kids these days, they just don't appreciate us. No, I'm kidding.

Well, no, no, they don't, they don't know what we had to go through.

Yeah.

As far as the changing too, you know, I've known some people that they didn't want to touch computers and they stuck just with the straight drawing for a long time. They were afraid to use that as a tool. And basically that's what it is. It's just a tool. But it's a way cool tool.

You know, it's the kind of Thing where you go, how did I get along without this thing?

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah. I wonder sometimes if I can still draw if I try to do it. I haven't drawn.

Come on, you can draw.

I could draw, but I haven't done it. I haven't had to. I can draw on a computer. I mean, I've done plenty of artwork on the computer, but actually pen to paper.

Oh, come on.

Isn't it weird?

No, see, I, I, well, I got this little sketchbook here with me because I didn't know if I was going to get here way before you and I was just sitting in front and draw.

Yeah.

But I keep one in the car and you know, I'm waiting for my wife while she's shopping and I'm drawing. You know, if I go to some kind of medical thing or something, I'm drawing while I'm waiting.

It's you flow, it's like breathing to you. And to me it would stressful. No, come on, don't having a book anyway. Separate, separate conversation.

But yeah, I put too much ardex, I put too much questions.

Now to Bruce.

Yeah. Turn the tables. This table spins.

Yeah, we're gonna do a two parter on you.

Time to change the channel, people. Well, one question I had for you among a couple others are has anybody, because your style, have you been approached to design tattoo for anybody?

Yeah, yeah, I've done tattoo designs.

Of course you have. What kind?

I mean, were they like the type of work that you do or did they have specific things in mind with specific styles that they wanted to impose on you?

They had things in mind. I would, you know, they'd give me an idea what they wanted and then I just draw it out and then they'd give it to the tattoo artists.

Even my daughter had me draw something. Yeah, she's an artist, but she wanted me to design for something for her. I've drawn things where people have gone. I'd like to get a tat made of that.

Yeah, I had a guy, Australia, he's in Australia and he contacted me, he saw something on Facebook. He goes, I'd like to get a tat made of that. Well, he didn't, you know, you can't. I wasn't trying to make an Australian voice.

But anyways, he contacted me.

Well, credit to him for not just ripping you off.

Right. He asked me and I said, that belongs to somebody else. If it's okay with them, I don't mind.

Perfect.

And it was for cabs, you know, the, you know, capital area Blue Society. It was their. Their logo, actually.

Yeah.

And he saw it and then I said, yeah, go for it, you know, if it's okay, you know. And they said, yeah. And he sent a photo back of this, you know, tattoo that looked just like I drew it. It's on his skin, you know.

Body art. Yeah, well, body art. The next question would be, have you ever had any of your stuff animated or would you ever be interested in.

Because I look at some of your conceptual work and I can just see it breathing and turning and looking and anything like that. Over the years, I

did some stuff for a company that did a simpler version of the animation where I drew extra arms and things like that. It was probably used in flash. I don't know how they did it. I didn't really see the finished thing, I guess, but. And that was way back.

And

I did a few other things that they kind of semi did things just moving the art around, not really animating it. I didn't myself. I didn't have interest.

It's a different realm. Yeah, it's a realm.

And it's the same thing with a comic strip. I would be so bored to get into animation where I'm drawing the same thing over with little moves.

I'd rather design the characters that were going to be animated.

Yeah. The undiluted creativity rather than the technical,

there you go stuff.

Because it can be so tedious, I think.

Yeah.

There's been some things that I've done where my nephew, he's an artist, where he's taken some of the things I've done and kind of added some computer type animation, a little bit of movement. Not true animation, but making some things move in a way, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

I.

Looking at your work, it's another thing and why this is just occurring to me now. And I've known it all along. It's fun. It looks like it's fun to do your subject matter, you know, pick one of them.

It all just looks it like you could just sit down and just draw for hours and hours and come up with what you come up with would be enjoyable from a. From a creative standpoint.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, it's not like you're doing like I was talking to.

I was talking to Brian Whitfield a couple weeks ago and you know, he was talking about this giant murals and how he doesn't like doing buildings, you know, or cars, you know, and everybody

wants same with me.

Yeah, well, what you do is at least it's not the other way around. Where you're doing cars and people say, I want this fantastic, weird creature with 15 eyes and tentacles. Huh.

Well, I'll tell you, tying in with what I just finished doing.

I haven't done the COVID yet for this science fiction book, but he already had the description of what he wanted of these characters, so I had to make them visually from his description. So they tie in with that, like an octopus character that was upside down.

Okay.

So all the tentacles were coming out of the top. His head was actually acting like the body then.

But it sounds like nightmare fuel, but okay.

Well, it looks kind of cool the way it turned out.

Yeah. You ever been interested in sculpture, sculpting in your stuff? That's another thing. I mean, sculpting is a.

You know, I think that when people think of artists, they think that they can do anything and they don't even know the difference between painting and drawing, you know?

Oh, yes.

And they don't understand multi disciplines.

Yeah.

You know, it's just like a brush opposed to a pen tip. You know, I. Sure, I can whip out things with a pen, but for me to paint, I used to paint.

It's a whole different thing, you know, and sculpture, for me, even though I would like the sculpt, I'm interested, but I don't have the time.

Yeah. I thought I dipped my toe in it. Cause how hard could it be, right?

But the stuff that you do, you're coming from somewhere. I'm going to.

Wow.

I couldn't do that.

Easy. I just get bored. But I thought it was easier than it was. It. It kicked my butt. I mean, how hard could it be, right? I could just. It'll fall in. Nope.

It was. Nope. And I. I hate crashing and burning like that. Probably never.

It's not a crash and burn from what I saw, you know, But I don't know how many times you went through things to come up with what you did.

Oh, well, trying to ideate in a 3D is I just. To your point, it's just a completely different discipline. You have to see it a different way.

One of my former guests, Jim Cunningham, said, with sculpture, certain types of sculpture, you're removing material, and other types of sculpture, you're adding material.

Right.

Which I thought, obviously, now I see that. But there's a whole mental game that you have to play to approach it and to do it, you know?

Well, it's like these guys that do sculpture have this little extra cell on their head where they can see things dimensionally, too.

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

You know, and you're going, wow. Because they're seeing all these different sides of things, and they know how to do it. I'm going, how do they do that?

You know, is that photo reference or what? How are they doing that stuff?

I don't know. It's some of these things from hundreds of years ago. Have you seen. Seen the one with a. It's cut out of marble. And somebody holding a fishing net.

And the net is marble.

Wow.

And it's a braided fishing net he cut out of marble. Now, did they have super glue back then, I wonder? Maybe something equivalent to wow. You know, don't sneeze with a chisel in your hand.

Well, maybe. Maybe that's the thing too. Working with very tiny chisels. Then maybe filing.

Yeah.

Then maybe. Okay, you can fine tune, you know, granite and stuff, you know, with a very small tool. But yeah.

And just like, get into one thing and dedicate your life to it.

Today you go on Instagram and see some of the creativity and how it's expressing itself with shadows and with garbage and with light and with glass and.

Yeah.

The people, the. The limits just keep getting pushed back further and further. You know, it's really great. It's great. You know, and I have to touch on very quickly.

You know, when you came into the art class in high school, you brought your portfolio and you had an army jacket on your long hair and a big. Yeah. Then you.

Maybe it was a safari jacket.

It could be. I know the army jackets were a big deal back then. The Foxhole px, you know, I had one. You. You know, the green. You know, the deep pockets. Yeah.

This is. Well, dating ourselves, I think I had a safari jacket.

I used to wear those.

Okay. Okay, we can go with that. Okay, well, you showed us your work, and it didn't.

Lance Shade was a teacher in the vocational art class, and I think he might have been your teacher, too.

I had him for one semester at Eastern.

Okay. Because he was there and he had you back. And he was heavy into bringing professionals in and talking. He had Joe Heron in at one point, and. And you.

And it was. It was just mind altering the possibilities that. You mean I could actually do this for a living now? Get out of here.

I can do this for a living, really. Like he's doing. And it was really something. And I can't forget you coming over. I mean, you. You.

You came over and picked me up in your green Volvo one Saturday. We went back to your house. You had your studio in your garage, and I'm like 18, I think maybe 18, 17. 18. Like that in high school. And I get.

I got to spend a day with Dennis Preston in your studio, in your garage studio. You know, you made burgers. You know, your wife was there and Francis Street. Maybe it was Hayford. Hayford, that's right. Grossbeck. And it was.

No, no, it was south of that actually.

Was it?

Yeah, it's not even Grossbeck. It was south of Saginaw.

Okay. Well, it was a rainy day and it was just so great, it was so affirming to have somebody like you, like legitimize whatever efforts.

And you're helping me with this ridiculous brochure for fantasy drawing. Like people are going to line up for me to do album covers. You know, all these things going through my head, it was just nonsense.

But having the just out of the gate, just somebody to be confident in my work, like that was just, it was game changing for me. And I thank you for that. Yeah, yeah. It was a very, very, very big deal. And I still brag about it. I do. Totally.

The burgers, all of it.

No, it was great, you know, because I'm in my, you know, listening to my Led Zeppelin and with the one bulb and drawing, sweating over the drawing. And those were my summers and that was it.

So finding like minded spirits and I don't think people can fully, younger people can fully appreciate not having the Internet to find like minded people.

I mean, before that it was, I mean, you had to really press outside your circle and outside your comfort zone, especially with creatives who are typically, typically withdrawn into their, their craft. I mean, I'm generalizing, I'm making a broad generalization, of course. I mean, I hope the performing arts people don't get too mad at me.

But you know, there are, there are like some stereotypes that you can apply to creative people, for better or worse. So yeah, it was great. It was great. Looking forward, is there anything that you would like to do? What would your dream project be? Oh,

well, I don't know. I don't know if it's a dream project. I like recording. I like making music.

Yeah.

A long time ago I had a goal of, you know, before I die, I'd like to record an album and do my own album cover. But I've already done that, you know, but that was a goal.

That was a bucket list item while back.

A while back. And that happened. And originally I recorded an album in, in 76 and that never came out. And then the one I did that came out in 91.

That's I. I met the goal, you know, I've been doing more music since then, you know, and put out a few more CDs.

But I saw you jam over at Urban Beat one night.

Oh, I like jamming.

I like shredding it. I mean, you were extremely capable musician.

Well, thanks. Yeah. Well, and the thing with that music, back in the early 70s, I used to paint to relax. And then it got to too much artwork.

I was doing things for clients, you know, the concert posters and the stuff for Free Spirit and sounds and Diversions. I was doing all their stuff and I would paint just to get things out of me. And then it just got to be too much artwork.

And that's why I got more into making music.

Okay.

And then I just kind of grew from there. Started learning to play more instruments and jamming with people and. And I was in a band back in 60s and part of the 70s, so.

But no, my going back to your question, I. I guess I would just like to make more music.

Yeah, that's a great. That's a great answer, Dan.

Well, and the other thing is like, I kicked around the idea. I think a thing back in high school that I thought I would have gotten into was acting. And I just thought, I don't have the brain for that.

I can't remember lines.

But you've.

I'm sure you've had to deal with people in your caricature work where they're just insufferable and you have to act like you're happy to be with them.

No, I think most of the time I'm okay with. At events that I'm drawing. The only time I probably wouldn't feel that great is like if I wasn't feeling good myself physically at all.

Yeah.

You know, or. Or if I'm sitting there for five hours and my back is starting to hurt or something.

No, you're so laid back. I can't anyone. I can't imagine. Honestly, I can't anyone being at odds with. With how you present yourself or you, you, you.

You're so chill that you put everyone else at ease. At least that's the way you used to be. And I'm getting that vibe right now.

Well, good.

Yeah. Yeah.

Notice how many times you haven't said cool.

Isn't it cool?

Yeah.

Yeah. That's great. Yeah. Well, I'm. We're going to wrap up. Was there anything else I'm missing? Anything that you wanted to add or share?

Oh, gee, I don't know. Did I answer all of your questions. Do you want more, or is there anything I.

If I think of more, I'll ask you back.

I'll come back.

Yeah. No, this has been very lively and fun, and I look forward to it.

And like I said, Dennis Preston and LCC in my mind for artwork, they're one and the same. They Denny, it's been great having you. It's great to see you.

Aw. Great to be seen.

Thomas Merton once said, art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

If you want to check out what I've been talking about, just visit this episode at LCCconnect.org. Art Happens Here is a production of LCC Connect. Thanks for lending us your imagination.