Today I get to post an interview with Daniel Edlen!
You have a really great niche and branding- out of many of the artists on Twitter, I find your art really sticks out because of the limiters you’ve placed on it: vinyl & music. When that was happening, did you realize what was going on?
I’ve been involved with art since I was very young, learning tools and practicing skills. When I came up with the idea of painting musicians on records in high school, it was for the challenge of trying it out and it seemed a natural combination of my love for both music and art. It was the concept that stuck.
Authenticity, or staying true to your gut, is one of my main motivators, so when I started selling them, after many years, it never was a question of what more I would do. The concept stayed the same, so the projects would have to as well. I’ve been really lucky in that I was able to preserve the concept and my sovereignty over it.
From the beginning of turning Vinyl Art into a business with a license and logo, I knew it needed to stay that way. My whole life I’d always confused people because I could do so many things, learn and excel at a wide variety of disciplines. With Vinyl Art I was determined to make it clear and easily communicable.
The first gallery that picked up my work, Wild About Music, liked work that was “affordable and portable”. That phrase applies to the concept of my work. It doesn’t require much time or thought to get what it’s about, and it’s easy to share. I knew that would help spread knowledge of what I do and have a wide audience.
I programmed and designed my site completely from scratch, having taught myself HTML back in college. I use PayPal because the fees are low and only apply to transactions, and I’ve never had a problem even with international orders. My site requires a lot of upkeep that most would probably laugh at me for doing, but, while the prevalent blog format today serves its purpose, I don’t think most people looking seriously to buy art would go for it. And I don’t have the money to spring for a really sophisticated database-driven site.
Getting to have David Lynch autograph the piece I painted for him to then auction for his foundation is probably my biggest success. I love being able to say thank you in my way to those who’ve created the culture I cherish, and his movies and Badalamenti’s soundtracks are huge in my book.
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