Much talk has been made on ‘the starving artist.’ Blame it on cliché films or novels, when an outsider hears the word “artist” the image of someone barely getting by and all over the place come to mind.
Drop that hasty generalization, and you’ll know that artists—with minds filled with creative thoughts and brilliant ideas—are practical and rational too. Overlooking some fantastical outliers, most artists aren’t found scraping by, fiddling in dark corners, tinkering on their projects—reinforcing the archetypal starving artist trope. They are normal people with responsibilities like jobs, relationships, children, to-do lists, and dishes that need to be done. People who at the end of a hard day’s work enjoy retreating to their bed sheets to numb their minds with videos on the internet.
And yet, amid the normality of their lives, people like Dante Dizon, creative director at 13 Lucky Monkey and director at production company Film Pabrika, manage to revitalize ordinary moments with his creative pursuits.
With 21 years of work as an art director in the advertising industry, spanning stints in global advertising agencies TBWA and Leo Burnett, Dante has solidified his career as a guardian of massive brands—from international heavyweights such as McDonalds and Marlboro to local jewels like Banco de Oro. Bringing a team of writers and art directors through the creative process, Dante has focused on “creative work that breaks through” but has months ago transitioned into a different node along the advertising business chain where he experiences less corporate rigidity.
“If you’re in the advertising agency, you hire a production house to bring your idea to life and I was always fascinated by that aspect, so my job now is to execute the advertising agency storyboard or make it better,” he reflects on his move to the production side by working now as a director at Film Pabrika.
Still, his quench for creative pursuit is not easily satiated. As much as Dante has dabbled in bringing his creative ideas to life though marketing campaigns, TVCs, and key visuals with his jobs, he also has another outlet of his own. On this side of his pursuit, the output is an actual physical object in the form of intricate, textured, and original jewelry pieces focused on rings through the brand he co-manages with sculptor Noli Coronado called 13 Lucky Monkey.
Dante’s detailed, skull-dazzled sketched imagery plus Noli’s experience as a sculptor at toy production company Hasbro and an accuracy-enhancing background in anatomy, the team has grown their ring output from three pieces a month—when they began creating in 2008—to fifty pieces monthly. With an impeccable global list of clients, the pair has managed to grow their presence in Hong Kong, Taiwan, New York, Los Angeles, London, Singapore, and Japan—where the rings are retailed out of the exclusive and globally-acclaimed concept store, Dover Street Market Ginza.
13 Lucky Monkey in Japan
After nine years of producing jewelry through 13 Lucky Monkey, Dante and Noli were approached by Filipino-British jeweler Castro Smith. “He saw our work on Instagram, and he asked about us,” Dante recalls. “He interviewed us about our process, and I was happy to oblige. He asked us if we want to do retail. [I said] yeah, sure.’ And he replied, ‘In Japan.’”
Bingo. Japan has always been his dream place for retail. “I don’t know why [it’s been my dream place to retail],” says Dante, “[but] it’s one of the toughest markets to penetrate.”
Furthermore, he recalls Castro bringing up Dover Street Market. “I’m like, ‘Oh, shit,’ Dante recalls. “That’s how we got into Dover Street Market. And it opened [opportunities in] UK, Singapore, New York, [and] LA.”
The hustle in between responsibilities and creativity
Perhaps that’s the least sexy aspect to achieving anything in a creative pursuit. While we may wish that art and artists achieve and succeed organically owing it to real merit, the fact remains: the work requires a market, be purchased, and before that and perhaps most important of all: the output needs to be good.
Unfortunately, even if a given creative idea is ornate and truly wonderful, the real tussle is going from idea to output while navigating the grisly tide of the job that feeds you, the people that need you, and the ceaseless list of responsibilities (the dishes, for example).
Dante has been succeeding against this tussle since his college days. He succeeded by marrying his career and creative endeavor. Reflecting on his entry into college, Dante recalls, “I wanted to get into the arts, but my dad, being old-school, wanted me to be in management, marketing management, or business management, so I finished that. And then found my way into advertising.”
But while in college pursuing management, Dante nurtured his interest in 2D art forms—paintings, and comics—but also took particular interest in sculpture. The fabled meeting of the minds with his business partner Noli, before they started making jewelry, began in college too.
“We’ve been friends [since] college, [and he went and] did his own thing,” says Dante. It was only after Dante began traveling for work, buying rings and jewelry that he and Noli clicked on this topic. After one specific trip to Japan, Noli suggested, “Let’s just make our own [jewelry]. You know, to make it look the way we want it to.”
Dante has always had a strong interest in this field. “[Back in college] I’d buy art magazines at Booksale or go to the library, [and so] I really pursued it to a point that I really wanted to create something but at the same time, I knew I had to pay my bills. So that’s why I landed in advertising.”
Even with its issues, the advertising industry, notorious for long working hours and corporate stress, Dante pursued an advertising career. Dante had no option other than to weave through normal, everyman stress and work-life to make way for his creative dreams. Dante narrates a story of long hours, “Basically, my life was: go to work early in the morning, finish at six or seven, go home, spend time with family, then work again making jewelry.”
Now, after over twenty years in advertising, Dante has found more flexibility. “[With my new appointment] things are more flexible,” he says. “I have more time for other pursuits like painting and creative stuff.”
Letting creative endeavors spill into work
Including this interview.
At some point, Dante stopped scribbling on his notepad. It was odd to have an interviewee writing notes down—in a way that made me both self-conscious and worried about the questions I was asking. He was talking about illustrating as his relaxation technique and added, “Right now, I’m actually drawing.”
He holds up a pencil sketch of a skull with the slightest smirk, a fat cigarette jutting out from between its clenched teeth—a thick plume of dark smoke rising lazily from the cigarette’s lit end. The skull figure wears a helmet, sort of like an American footballer’s helmet, adorned with sticker-like smileys and thunderbolts.
Dante says this isn’t uncommon for him. “I’ve been to corporate meetings where I just doodle because it just keeps my whatever at bay,” he says. “And [when] people [talk to] me after the meeting, I can recap the whole [thing].”
And these doodles end up being used in his 13 Lucky Monkey work. “I doodle on each package every time I send something to Dover Street Market,” Dante says. “I have cards which I draw on individually. It’s super therapeutic for me.”
A mindset for creative wellness
After trips to Harajuku and Shimokitazawa, he took to heart a disciplined willingness to surround himself with material that enlivened his creative spirit.
“When the Japanese are into something—watches, shoes, or whatnot—they will dedicate entire publications to it,” shares Dante. This is the same literature he brought back to The Philippines to show Noli, and inspired the pair to start the brand they’ve built for over almost two decades. Dante values this accumulation process. “I think there should be a level of curation in terms of things you like,” he shares. “You expose yourself; you buy literature. I don’t know if anyone buys literature still.”
“I have tons of books. Pegs,” he added.
This compiling of material sounds overwhelming, but by continuously building a set of material and allowing time to pass without rushing madly in each direction, one can uncover and steep the most important bits.
“You don’t have to complicate [things], and I think you have to be very observant,” Dante reflects. “You know, the stuff we come out with are stuff we’ve liked ever since we were kids. It’s very simple. We don’t complicate the themes.”
Perhaps the job of the artist is to balance hustling with allowing things to settle
Everything, all the time can feel painfully important, as if every spec of information is screaming for your attention. Urgency is useful to get things done, but it can force unpolished ideas into haphazard existence.
It’s important to build some form of relaxation into a creative process, and Dante doesn’t overcomplicate his journey into Zen. “Riding is for ‘push in case of emergency’. But the quick fix is, you know just watching Netflix, or stupid fail videos on YouTube.” Dante references a love for motorcycles he’s had since he was ten.
This hyper-normal excursion into the internet world of nothingness is part of finding the balance. Normal questions can be part of a creative process too. Even questions like, “Do I want to buy this?”
“When we create something, we have to want it, [to] also spend money on it,” says Dante.
The other end of the scale focuses on ordering our time and our efforts. “I have to list all the shit I have to do and finish in a daily journal,” says Dante. “I have lists. They can be overwhelming, but you set expectations like I know I can’t finish everything, but if I can finish six out of ten, that’s probably a win already.”
CREDITS
WRITER Jaymes Shrimski
PHOTOGRAPHER Tim Serrano
EDITOR Tricia Quintero
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