Daylight Curfew | Artist Spotlight: Keith Cheek

This week we spotlight New Jersey-based illustrator and silkscreen/stencil artist, Douglas C. Keith. His latest work translates his views and opinions of this insane world by way of the classic bumper sticker medium. A 180 degree departure from his earlier stream-of-conscious, self-described “thoughtless” prints.

What are you currently working on?
Next level bumper stickers.

Tell us about your process from inspiration to execution.
My earlier work had no plans or ideas. They are thoughtless drawings. I tried to make it as subconscious a process as possible. Once they were completed, I would invent some meaning and title them accordingly.

Lately, I’ve been illustrating ideas…making pictures to sit beside thoughts. Mainly thoughts about the madness that takes place here on Earth. I am a realist who has given up on this planet for the insane. Not that I believe the world is going to end on December 21st…just that the cycle of civilization is on the decline and I can’t convince myself that things are going to turn around. There’s just too many assholes. But I still enjoy myself.

Screen printing is my preferred medium but lately I’ve been stencil printing with spray paint. Only because it’s much easier to have a spray booth in an apartment then it is to have a silkscreen studio.

I also have been doing a lot of contour line drawings of old toys…shit from the eighties…and coloring them digitally. Like He-man and Ewoks. The nostalgia gets my endorphins going. Not sure how they’ll be used…most likely in a bumper sticker.

What have you been listening to lately?
Audio books. I’ve worked my way through Vonnegut’s library and am very sad to have no more stories from him. I’ve never read Chuck Palahniuk so I might try him next. People seem to like him.

If your work had a soundtrack what would it be?
Die Antwoord. Or maybe John Lennon. Probably John Lennon. He upset people with rational thought.

What do you want people to take away from your work when they see it?
My earlier work was completed without meaning. So I would just hope people would find their day to be a little bit better because they saw something interesting that may or may not have made sense.

Lately I would like my words and pictures to spread a message that should be obvious…that should be a mainstream idea simply because it’s rational and sensible. A lot of people get pissed at rational arguments. Like how we had to destroy a race in order to obtain the land we now call America. But people still say,”God Bless America.” But why would God bless a country that was founded on genocide. I went to Sunday School. I know God’s not into genocide. Or like how Dick Cheney pretends to be Christian after profiting from the unnecessary war he sold us. Jesus loves war profiteers. It’s all ridiculous.

What does the future hold for you?
A progressively lower middle class lifestyle as the pay increases at my teaching job do not keep up with the rate of inflation. I’ll likely continue to share good times with the people I enjoy being around. Hopefully I’ll continue to have some opportunities to travel and continue to make next level bumper stickers.