BP: You create with a tremendous amount of Life & Colors. Have you ever created a painting you wanted to 'live in' after it was done?
DH: My art is a world I already live in. My paintings are personal psychic maps of my intellect and idiocy, of my ecstasy and misery. There are a few pieces I would NOT want to live in anymore or for real - two in particular: "Out of Gas" is an very old painting of a poor guy stuck in Beverly Hills. The other is "Home Sick" about people at war. (See The Hinne-5000) They are a gratitude list of stills. If you haven't watched David Hockney's Secret Knowledge documentary (BBC) on optics and painting, you must see it! The reason I bring it up is that one part of it explains how some paintings can make you feel like you are in them, not looking through a window. I'd like to think that the reason my collectors continue to tell me they love and enjoy my art is that they – perhaps in some way - spend time in them.
BP: What is your 'emotional repertoire’ like when you create your art?
DH: I start out put-zing around the studio for an hour listening to music on a low boil.
I've gone through enough years of "dread-starting", but now I know my process. After a few years I had my chops, so the high highs and the low lows mellowed out.
After a few hours of working in the studio either on a specific project or piece, I'll veer off and start painting through the stacks: hundreds of unfinished pieces - so I do get pretty elated.
I guess it's a kind of trance. Most of my paintings are memories of fantasies or both and I almost never plan them unless I'm ‘live-painting’ in which case I just Xerox the subject, glue it on the canvas somewhere (even when I live-painted for Bentley) and then have fun at the party and fun painting-which is bizarre. I used to hate ‘live- painting’ and thought it was stupid but now I'm off on a tangent. I still try to be careful not to ruin something that should have gone inside should have been taken out of the studio a long time ago.
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I don't work angry although I get angry when I ruin something and I often destroy or "repurpose" a piece if it gets returned. I do work when I'm depressed but when I'm depressed I get back to exercising. Maybe I'm talking about inspiration, not emotion.
BP: We can help but notice a lot of womens breasts in your art. Is there a story behind that?
DH: Oh, it's a wonderful story. As old as the one about Eve and that other dude. One day I will write a book about it!
BP: Has the birth of your son altered the way you create?
I haven't stopped creating but I am trying! It's a joke. I can't stop creating! I'm 50 now and although I'm only 20 years into this 50 year project, if I need to quit (I won't quit painting, I'll just quit selling) to raise my kid I'll quit. I've been watching a lot of artist biographies lately and some of the big dude ones have kids everywhere. I am grateful my kid is going to have his dad there for him 100%. I'm not on drugs, I'm not angry, I'm happy. So I'm stoked and willing and able to just go to work. I did meet my kid's mom painting live! But my mom has been helping pay my bills for 10 years now so something is going change. Almost none of my collectors are "collectors" so I'm not screwing anyone over- no one has spent $50,0000 on one of my paintings. I'll probably go into sales or computers or whatever pays the bills.
Photo by Kevin Scanlon