Fun, weird, psychedelic art on display at Delta of Venus
On April 12, Bay Area artist and musician Will Durkee held an art opening at Delta of Venus Cafe. The art on display was an eclectic grouping of some of Durkee’s favorite work, dating back almost ten years.
“I would say it’s a retrospective, but I’m not old enough,” Durkee said.
Durkee has been interested in art since he was a child and drew a lot of inspiration from the cartoons he watched growing up. He developed a passion for playing music when he was twelve and played in several bands in his youth.
In 2016, Durkee completed a custom-built double neck guitar that had the necks of both a guitar and bass. He also painted the body of the guitar in his signature style. This creation gave him the opportunity to join the Mime Troupe, a musical theater and political satire group based in San Francisco. He toured Northern California with the group, playing both bass and guitar on his hand-made instrument.
The art on display at Delta of Venus reflects these interests. His paintings are animated and bright, giving off a psychedelic feel. His portfolio consists of paintings, drawings and prints. Durkee seems to excel in all of these mediums and had an equal balance of them on display.
He also highlighted a collage-based piece, consisting of Durkee’s designs of real and fake album covers. Durkee explained the fake ones were either parodies or homages to other artists, and the real ones are used on covers of his own CD’s.
Durkee also had his first full-length album for sale during the opening. The album, “7ams,” consists of 12 eclectic and experimental songs.
“Its twelve songs are really different sounding,” Durkee said. “Each one has its own genre, from bluegrass, punk rock, jazz [and] folk.”
Durkee also makes all of his own album art and hand prints for each CD. He enjoys the process of combining his musicality and artistic talent.
Durkee’s artistic inspirations include the cartoons he watched as a child, along with psychedelic art of the 1960s
“Anything just really weird” Durkee said. “Just all of the weirdest types of things.”
Durkee’s album “7ams” is available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music.
Written By: Alyssa Ilsley — arts@theaggie.org
