A photo posted on his Facebook page on November 19, 2015 shows a black garage door, void any art. Prince Rogers Nelson died on April 21, 2016, the image of Prince was painted the next week.
In June of 2016 (a very young)Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead images were added.
From the Galveston News (
visit link) By ROBERT STANTON Correspondent Jun 14, 2016
Gift of God: Local artist contributes to 'enlightenment of Galveston'
Derek Anderson doesn’t believe in accidents.
When his car broke down on state Highway 146 near Interstate 45 in 2000, he realized that his planned trip to the Florida Keys from Wisconsin wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. So he made his way to Galveston.
“I thought to myself, ‘This is not a bad place,’” Anderson said of his precipitous landing on the island. “I liked what I saw and decided to stay.”
Anderson has made his mark on the city’s landscape as one of Galveston’s premiere artists. His studio at 2224 Church St. has become a draw for art aficionados, old and young. Motorists often stop to see the larger-than-life rock ‘n’ roll mural he made of Prince, Bob Dylan, The Beatles and the schoolmaster from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”
“People stop by all the time to see it,” said Anderson, 47, who lives in a loft above the studio. “I hear, ‘Thank you. I’m so glad you did it’ from black people and white people and kids with their dads. They’re appreciating it, and it’s showing Galveston as having a little flavor.”
Before moving to Galveston, Anderson worked in construction and various odd jobs, but none were satisfying career-wise, he said.
“I was horrible with any other job,” Anderson said. “Construction sucked and I was always good in art. I was selling pictures already in the third grade. So all the arrows indicated art. It fit my life.
“It wasn’t about, ‘this is what I want to be,’” he said of being an artist. “It really became me, and I’m it. Art was perfectly natural. It’s a gift of God put to use.”
Anderson has not attended art school, but has always been compelled to put down on canvas what he feels in his heart, he said. He uses acrylics, house paint, cardboard, wood, oil — whatever fits the subject at hand.
Anderson’s first-floor studio is a testament to his love of art. Visitors will find everything from a painting of Ms. Piggy and Kermit the Frog — a reference to pop photographer Annie Leibovitz’s last photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono — to a chalk pastel-colored picture of the late rocker David Bowie.
There’s also a large painting of a French chef smoking a hand-rolled cigarette after taking a bite out of a roll of bread, with a wine case as the backdrop. And there’s “Sun Kissed,” a 5-by-5-foot painting of a man picking oranges from a tree with a snake at his head, in a biblical reference.
Island resident Iric Dawson said that Anderson is contributing to “the enlightenment of Galveston.”
“I definitely think it promotes tolerance,” he said. “We can collectively agree on some stuff, like art. Art is the thing that brings us together, no matter how different we are.”
From His website (
visit link)
Derek Anderson
Born in Wisconsin in 1968, Derek didn't start his art career until he was 23 years old. He found himself in Venice Beach, CA, drawing portraits, and that's when his eyes opened to the possibilities of his talents. He then moved on tho become an Olvera St. Artist in El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument. Wanting to expand his horizons, he traveled to Hamburg and then to Paris where he spent his time drawing at Montmarte Place du Tertre and furthered his studies in Budapest, then off to Amsterdam on Rembrandt Square. Mr. Anderson founded the Galveston studio in 2009.
Derek Anderson Studio has the mission of creating and showcasing eclectic and often provocative works for the city and county of Galveston. Through live exhibitions, candid interactions and impromptu social events, Derek Anderson strives to deliver a sense of nostalgia via acrylic and canvas. By providing his audience with original flair and color concepts, Mr. Anderson hopes to inspire all who pass through his doors to create.
Derek, now in Galveston, can be found spending days raising his daughter and painting. He enjoys the way the island allows him to be free to paint and create art without any constraint as he is not particular to any one style. On any given day, he might be in his studio creating another piece, drawing portraits, or fulfilling a commission for another mural project.