Art in The 4th Dimension: How Artists Can Do More Through Merchandising

Art in the 4th Dimension is, to me, something that boils down to one simple word: Merchandising.

I can already hear the cries of "Sell Out" and "Commercialism".

When I was 4 years old, I was basically addicted to TV. We had cable in our small 1-bedroom apartment and I was just starting Kindergarten. On weekends I would watch non-stop Nickelodeon. By the time I was 7, I was already doodling, like kids do, but they were ads. Yes, that's right; By the time I was 7, I was drawing ads about how great the Nickelodeon and Pizza Hut partnership was. To some, a perversion of innocence, to others a realization of the world of overt commercialism we have created. To me, it was none of this and, looking back, I knew then that it was because I had just watched a lot of TV and, being young and impressionable, it wasn't much different than a kid drawing Mickey Mouse or Spider-Man and coming up with their own ideas.

Think back, and don't lie to yourself; When you were only a kid, you loved cartoons. You loved them so much that if you could get your hands on any toy, poster, t-shirt, action figure, kids meal toy, sneaker, shock, bed sheet... ANYTHING you could get your parents to buy for you with that character on it, you wanted it. It was, in a sense, a world you could create for yourself based on what you enjoyed.

Now, imagine an artist with that same power.

H.R. Giger is the best example I can give of this. His artwork, as deeply personal and incredible as it is, never was one to shy away from commercialization nor did he shy away from the ability to expand his creation into this, the 4th Dimension. In fact, the climax of this is none other than bars that were built around his art. Yet you would be hard pressed to find someone cry "sell-out".

There are so many artists today who have taken to customizing anything and everything and selling them. Pushead, for example, took his style to new levels and had his work (albeit without permission) made into things such as lamps and mugs.

Merchandising can be less a commercialization of art and more a development and an even more interactive extension of art itself. Creating toys, designing shirts, skateboards, sneakers... going outside what is considered a simple 2-dimensional piece of art on a poster or, in this ditigal age, on a computer screen and allowing people to take it with them, enjoy and apply it to their own lives as they see fit... honestly, it is nothing short of amazing.

My dream has always been to create a personal world where people could be enveloped by my art and creations. Artists will, and always have, dreamt of this. The backlash from people towards this is always in the perception that the artist is most likely doing it only to see an expansion to their bottom line and not what, in their "humble" opinion, is not a true expression of the creators own art and creativity. While this can be the case, for people such as myself, it is the complete opposite.

Desiging t-shirts, skateboards, and sneakers have been dreams of mine and countless other artists for years, and in this modern age of digital and easy reporduction, when seeing an idea go to print no longer requires the same amount of work as it did in the past and anyone with a printer can now become a designer (for better or worst), we are seeing a burst of creativity and people realizing their own personal dreams as well.