Dennis in DeDeLand

Hotdog frontman and Manila Sound pioneer Dennis Garcia never gave any reason why he suddenly decided to turn to painting a few years ago. Now, with his latest collection DeDeLand on view at the Art Center of Megamall, he finally came out with the reason why. 

Now his works maybe whimsical and humorous most of the time but I tell you that he takes his painting as seriously as he does his music. His art brings on a lot of smiles but with well-placed details here and there, the man behind Pers Lab, Bongga Ka Day, Manila and other pop classic, can also uncomfortably rock a few boats.

Dennis says why. “I looked at the local scene and noticed that many artists are treating art as an interior design tool — painting pieces that will match a buyer’s sofa or wall or office foyer or hotel lobby. Shouldn’t be that way. Art is NOT about following a formula to keep the cash register ringing. 

“It should be an artist’s interpretation of things around him.  Common things. Beautiful things. Shocking things. Comforting things. Inspiring things. Things that move him enough to rush and interpret it on canvas. Last thought on his mind should be whether his shade of red will match the curtains in the master’s bedroom.”

DeDeLand is all about breasts. This is Dennis’ first collection to veer away from the music theme. He did Hotdog songs and portraits of musicians earlier. Despite this, a lighthearted sing-song quality permeates his work. I do not think it was intentional on his part but I am sure every DeDe painting will liven up any space it occupies. 

“I believe in being single-minded,” Dennis continues. “My discipline in my many years in advertising… and songwriting.  So all the paintings were centered specifically on one theme — created over a period of five months. There were one or two that I painted a few years back (personal favorites) that fit the theme to a t. So I included them.”

Dennis never took art lessons, which I guess results in the spontaneity that characterizes his works. “I am what you’d classify as an Outsider Artist, meaning one unschooled in the rules and processes of formal, school-taught art. Which means, I paint what I want — unmindful of other’s opinions or critique… which means being politically incorrect comes with the territory.  I paint to give my intimate commentary on life and if people don’t like it… I don’t really care.”

A lot of people like what he paints and now proudly display Dennis Garcias on their walls. Those include several politically incorrect ones that can be relevant, irreverent, hip or whatever with changing social and political structures. Not DeDeLand though. Breasts are breasts and whether seen as food banks or gender IDs, they never go out of style.

“There is nothing that men obsess about more than looking at women’s breasts,” says Dennis. “I remember the time when I was 12 and my brother Rene was 10. We would wait for our Kuya Greg to leave for work so we can rifle through his file of Playboy Magazines. A few years later, we were desperately looking for cedulas so that we can watch a nipple for 1/8 of a second at seedy Palace Theater. I guess breast-watching became a virus that never went away.”

I say that it never really went away. Because decades later how else could Dennis have taken that breast obsession and turned it into a full-blown mammary exhibition that he calls DeDeLand if he were not still fascinated with breasts. If you want to check out these paintings that are serious, ridiculous, sublime or outrightly irreverent of the female breast, then visit DeDeLand which will be at the Art Center of SM Megamall until today.  

Some examples of the DeDe paintings by Dennis are Moon Over Bohol where a DeDe or two are located among the famous Chocolate Hills; Eden, where Adam reaches for the forbidden DeDeApple fruits of a tree while a serpent looks on; Dilig, which is about watering DeDes to make them grow; or Planet DeDe, about a world where we never have to guess how each woman’s breast looks like and measures. They are just out there. And there are many more.