Spike Dennis’ Biography

‘So come with me where dreams are born and time is never planned. Just think happy things and your heart will fly on wings forever in Never-Never Land’

- Peter Pan

Born in the late great summer of nineteen eighty something Spike displayed an aptitude for making and creating at a young age primarily through his love of playing with Duplo™ and Stickle Bricks. He spent several years floating around inside his own dreams imagining that he was roaming the mountain tops in the far north, chasing the Lunar Hare with a fish knife, before eventually giving up his preschool toys in exchange for some paints and brushes.

Spike trained at the prestigious Wimbledon School of Art in London where he was taught the deepest darkest secrets of the age old tradition that is Fine Art Painting. He later completed his Masters Degree in Fine Art in Wales where he developed his purple tendencies whilst his practice evolved into three dimensions and beyond.

With a penchant for big hair, acrylic paint and peroxide Spike has exhibited extensively in recent years both across the United Kingdom and overseas. However, he won’t be satiated until he has taken his distorted visions of the world around us to the furthest reaches of the universe.

Artist Statement

‘Art is made to disturb. Science reassures. There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain’

- Georges Braque

My stance is akin to that of a Romanticist. There was a time in the early nineteenth century when to be a Romantic meant more than to be a dreamer or a love-sick youth. In fact it was as far back as the fifteenth century that Romantic was deemed to be all that was wild and fantastic;, that imagination which is most free.

I find inspiration in stories, folk tales, mythology and contemporary popular culture. My current area of research has been centred upon the history and symbolism of the Unicorn. The changing status of the unicorn throughout the ages can tell us a lot about ourselves. As a symbol of rebirth and fecundity I believe that the Unicorn is an ideal symbol to guide contemporary society through these depressing times. My recent work has sought to rescue this magnificent imaginary beast from the soft-focus, airbrushed new age mystical image with which it seems to have increasingly become associated.

My practice generally revolves around process based practices such as drawing and stitch. Repetitive actions enable me to focus my mind upon those themes and ideas which inform my work as well as contemplating my own self in relation to this world and my work.

I am a maker

I am an imaginator

I am a wolfman

I am a unicorn farmer

for you I shall call myself an artist

I seek the truth, not enlightenment

I accept, without question, the existence of Unicorns

I understand that time is not linear

The Grotesque tickles my soul

I have a burning desire to understand that which lies beyond the stars; I pursue this in full knowledge that I will never be satisfied

Through labour intensive processes I resist the listlessness and dissatisfaction resulting from my lack of interest in your world

My practice is my therapy

I am a boy who sews

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Artist statement 2009 – 2011