On Skulls, Dunnys and Militaria: Dril One!

Vinyl Artist Dril One talks about abandoned asylums, military memorabilia, his affection for ‘Dia de los Muertos’ - and explains why the whole skull thing was an accident.

His art is astoundingly powerful and he's soon to throw his own custom show.

I caught up with him through Twitter, where he's been known to mention give-aways...




Q: How did you get in to the art toy thing?

A: In December 2005, I saw a year in review from Motorbot on the KidRobot message boards. Inspired, I started to mess with customizing Dunnys. I left one on the floor one night to find out 1yr oldpug had chewed the ear off. I tried to fix it, with no luck – every time I sanded it, the head came off. Then a Tristan Eaton weight lifter from Dunny looked so like the Skull relic after the sanding, I was like wow. I cut out eyes, teeth and a nose. Then I ended up doing 30 with 4 chase Labbits and suddenly I had a name in the world of customizing. Felt great and I was addicted!



Q: Loving the skull and crossbones motif that characterises much of your art – why have you stuck with it?

A: I was never into skulls and kind of got branded into it. Then people started expecting it and giving me commissions. It got me into skulls and it progressed and changed as I tried new things. I am actually not a dark person besides some of the music I listen to.


Q: Where do your ideas and inspirations come from?

A: I love rust, decay, history, ruins, military, now skulls, vintage, and all this makes me who I am. I had an obsession with photographing abandoned buildings and had to shoot any I saw. I loved roaming around old abandoned insane asylums and amusement parks. Growing up in NYC, there was so much history and never admired it till I experienced my first Urban Exploration in 1997. Living in the Bay area (San Francisco) there are many military bunkers, forts, missile silos, and so much military history - which influenced me to get back into it. It also brought back childhood memories of all the military machinery which I love. I guess it is my environment which is my biggest influence.




Q: I’m finding a strong Mexican theme to your work – ‘Dia de los Muertos’, ‘Day of the Dead’. Is this the case?

A: I love different cultures. I lived in San Diego for six months and would go into TJ (Tijuana) just to eat and explore the main streets. The arts always drew me in. The Day of the Dead theme is only a small part of my work and it is a tribute to a culture which I love.



Q: Which is your favourite piece?

A: My favourite piece probably has to be my MAD*L “ The TC-01R Vinyl Destroyer” or My Rocketworld I.W.G. Rocket. These to pieces took the longest and taught me some patience.



Q: You took part in Kaiju Blasphemy and The Sharpie Show in March alongside some pretty serious artists – that must be quite a blast!

A: I love group shows, it’s always nice seeing your name next to amazing artists. This year I have 12 confirmed shows so far and three in the works. My new love/hate is throwing shows. My 1st real gallery curating show was at the infamous Rocketworld owned by Patrick Ma called ‘Humans Beware’ on April 10th 2009. I chose 70+ artists out of a list of 180 wanting to be in the 1st ever I.W.G. custom show. A few minor learning experiences but it was to me a complete success. I was so happy to see the artist step up and put out their A game. I am also throwing a custom show in June called ‘Into the Darkness’.


Q: What advice would you give a new designer?

A: Practice, practice, and maybe some practice. Try and do something that most people don’t Another good way is to interpret movie characters into a Munny or Dunny. Don’t steal peoples style; you can take a style, make it your own and credit the artist. They would appreciate it. Spend a ton of time reading the customizing section on the Kidrobot message boards. And take criticism as a compliment not an insult.


Q: Where can we get our hands on your fantastic stuff?
My site – www.Drils.com
Photo site – www.flickr.com/drilone
Twitter – www.twitter.com/drilone
My gallery site is www.blue77gallery.com

Email: drilone@yahoo.com

Follow me on Twitter to find out when I give away customs and art, post sales of new products, show info, plus the hundreds of other artist which do the same.