“If you are going to do these shows and festivals and create merch, it’s ideal to create merch that not only people want, but they can also use.”
– SEAN DIETRICH
ean Dietrich is more than just a visionary artist whose work transcends boundaries and defies categorization. He brings to the world a Willy Wonka kaleidoscope of color and chaos as a visual feast that challenges the boundaries of perception and invites us to see the world through a lens of wickedness and wonder.
With a style that blends elements of pop art, surrealism, and street art, Sean has created a body of work that is at once provocative, playful, and deeply thought-provoking.
From his iconic Wonderland series, which reimagines classic Alice in Wonderland characters in bold new ways, to his striking portraits and politically charged pieces, Sean’s art is a testament to his boundless creativity and fearless approach to self-expression. His work has been featured in galleries and exhibitions across the country, and he continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the world of contemporary art.
We caught up with Sean while on the road…
BOOM: Hello Sean. Welcome to Transmissions.
Sean Dietrich: Hey, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
BOOM: Of course, your reputation precedes you. I am curious, just how many shows do you vend at every year?
Sean Dietrich: I vend at anywhere between, I don’t know, 15 and 25 shows now. In 2024, I’ve actually expanded the amount of shows that I’m at, significantly in order to expand my fan base and, you know, go to new areas, explore new shows, so that way I don’t get stale and it doesn’t get boring being on the road.
BOOM: How’s your current 2024 tour going? What’s the agenda been like, and where are you heading?
Sean Dietrich: This year’s tour is going okay. I started off with a couple of small shows and at the time of this recording, I haven’t gotten to any of the bigger rock shows yet, like Welcome to Rockville or Sonic Temple, but they are booked and I’m super excited to be back at Rockville for, I think, my, I don’t know, 9th year, I believe. Yes, it’s, as I said earlier, it’s a little bit different tour this year because I’ve added so many different shows, including Dark Force Fest, World Oddities Expo, Tortuga Music Festival, Florida Groves, which I’m about to do this weekend at the time of this recording. So What Music Fest, and I’ll also be returning to Welcome to Rockville, Sonic Temple, Bonnaroo, Louder Than Life, Aftershock, and a multitude of others. So, I’ve also brought quite a few projects with me to work on while I’m on the road, including some custom guitars that I’m painting and custom basses I’m painting for my sponsor and the sponsor of this tour, and I’m also working on a couple of really cool guitars for some big bands that I’ll announce when the time is right. And other than that, I have a ton of work that I have to fit into my schedule, and so it’s a unique tour. I’ve basically doubled the amount of shows that I normally do, and it feels right and it feels good, and it’s awesome to kind of get out there and expand my fan base and just meet so many more people and new people that I can hopefully add to the trip and see them year after year.
BOOM: What type of merchandise do you sell?
Sean Dietrich: So my merch falls into a couple categories. First, I obviously sell my art, and I sell reproductions of my art as well as tapestries, reproductions on canvas, metal, wood, and then, I also have a kind of a smoke shop section. I do grinders and rolling trays and rolling papers and dad mats and other assorted things that kind of fit into the cannabis industry, which also includes some awesome collaborations with companies like Zippo, Mood Mats, Toker Poker, Kill Your Culture, and then, I also have, you know, stickers, patches, I’m working on temporary tattoos, rave fans, and some rain ponchos as well. So, I like to come up with some utilitarian stuff, too. So, like the rolling trays and grinders, and fans, and stuff like that, that’s what people are using at festivals. So, it sells really well, and it’s kind of a, you know, a tip that if you are going to do these shows and festivals and create merch, it’s ideal to create merch that not only people want, but they can also use. I did a 360 hoodie once with the Mad Hatter on it, and the guy couldn’t get 5 feet without getting his picture taken, and just him walking around the festival and people seeing the artwork, they’re going, “Where is that? Oh, go check that guy out over there.” So. So, yeah, when I plan my merchandise out, a lot of it’s utilitarian for what people are going to be using at the festival, and of course, I also produce the normal merch that most people want, stickers and patches and stuff like that.
BOOM: Tell me about your sponsorships and how you get a sponsor to sign up.
Sean Dietrich: Yeah, as far as sponsorships go, I’ve done them in the past and pre-Covid, and then once I started concentrating on producing my own merch line in the cannabis industry, it kind of fell to the wayside. But with how expensive it is to tour these days, sponsorships are kind of key to my success as far as allowing me to feel less pressure to have the money to produce merch as well as keep me on the road. Essentially, I put together a little eight page booklet, talks about who I am, my accomplishments, it gives the tour dates, it tells people why they should sponsor me. It has demographics and, you know, as far as my tour, I’m in front of about, I don’t know, 750,000 people a year, million people, something like that, and I’m pretty well-connected within that fan base as well. These are long term fans and so, you know, when I get somebody that sponsors me, it’s believable, you know, the fans really look to it and say, “oh, hey, he actually has a passion for this product or this collaboration that he’s doing,” and so, it just makes for an easier sell and obviously that makes the sponsors happy. So, the bite is, you know, definitely sponsors that are willing to support an artist, and it gives the sponsor just something cool, not only to promote their business, obviously that’s what they’re doing, but it adds a humanity to their business. It shows that they’re backing someone that’s out on the road doing the grueling work of touring, of trying to create a business, and of living in the life of an artist, which all three of those are impossible challenges that we like to scale as creatives. So, for me, really just talking to the sponsors about, yeah, it’s going to get your product out there, but it’s going to be able to promote you in a way that’s way more unique than just putting up a billboard or a radio ad or, you know, a magazine ad. It adds a closeness because they actually get to talk to me at the festivals.
BOOM: I am curious, can you offer advice to anyone wanting to tour the way you do?
Sean Dietrich: As far as any artist that wants to tour the way I do, my advice would be start local, start small, and build up from there. Start with your local art fairs. Start by going to nightclubs, bars, breweries, seeing if they’ll let you set up a canvas and do live art while the djs spin. That’s how I started my career back in 1999, 2000. As far as the live painting side of things, I had a comic book out and, you know, it was an indie book, so it was, let’s say, lacking a budget to promote it. So, I knew a lot of the djs in San Diego and I would just say, “Hey, where are you spinning tonight?” Can I set up a canvas, promote my comic book? And it kind of grew from there, and then as you start to see events that are maybe a couple counties away, maybe another city, it’ll build from there. And then you can start to talk to companies about sponsoring you in order to help pay for travel, producing merch, supplies, all the other expenses associated with it. So yeah, don’t try and jump in and do what I’m doing right now, because obviously it took me 15 years to build this up, which is how many years I’ve been on the road doing the festivals. It’s taken me over 25 to get where I am as far as doing the live painting and being out there on the road. So yeah, start small, start local, build from there.
BOOM: You have a show on Twitch. What can you tell us about it?
Sean Dietrich: On Twitch, I live-stream my art and I am an artist that streams. I’m not a streamer that does art. So it’s a huge difference. I’m not on everyday begging for bits, or donations, or being a streamer that “Hey, I’m gonna do a twelve hour stream.” No, I just figure if I’m gonna paint, why not aim a camera at it? And it’s been a really cool experience. I’ve met some pretty amazing people, including the artist Dustin Wilson, Kei Rune Art, through that channel, and quite a few other artists. So, it’s been a really amazing community. I do wish I had more time to put into it, but with tour schedule and a new book coming out and podcasts I’m building, it’s just too much right now. But I’m not gonna get rid of it, and it’ll definitely play a part in my career in the future.
BOOM: What’s your take on painting live?
Sean Dietrich: I live paint because I think it’s one of the best ways to get your artwork out there, and to introduce people to your artwork in a more intimate setting. I’m not a huge fan of online marketing. I know it works for some people, it works because you put the effort and you put the work in, which I’m just not willing to do when it comes to the online social media huha. But I absolutely love being in person, doing live art, being at festivals, and introducing my artwork to people. That way, it gives them a much better experience than just looking at a static image, and, you know, I’ve built my career up based off of it, and so it works really well.
BOOM: Has anything crazy happened while doing it?
Sean Dietrich: Has anything crazy happened? Some people would say, in my early days, as long as I was in the room, crazy was happening. But I would say that, yeah, some of the big parties we threw in San Diego, where I hired a 300-pound dude to play the gluttony victim from the movie Seven, and he put his face in a plate of spaghetti for a half hour, stayed still and everybody thought he was just fake, like we had built him special effects style, and then he got up and started walking around freaked everyone out. Bar Basic in San Diego. We did a Halloween party there where I gave birth. I cut open my friend Delia and gave birth to a pig baby on Halloween for a party. There’s been so much craziness that’s happened, that’s all it could fill a book. So those were just a couple of examples. And now you got me thinking, I should probably write a book about my crazy shit. Live painting days.
BOOM: What are some of your favorite things to draw and paint?
Sean Dietrich: As far as some of my favorite things to paint, I love WWII pinup. I absolutely love pinup and burlesque. I love goddesses, ancient lore, ancient folk tales, all the wonderful characters that inhabited ancient religions. I was a huge fan of Clash of the Titans back in the day. So, Medusa and the Kraken, and all the just amazing creatures and fairy tales that came out of, from ancient civilizations on up to, you know, a few hundred years ago, they just fascinate me. I love adding a lot more flora into my paintings. Now, I do live in Washington state, and I have really cool mushrooms and ferns and all sorts of plants that live, you know, in the woods behind me. So that’s been a big inspiration. I do paint a lot of WWII stuff. I’ve always been a history buff. My grandpa got me into it very young, and it’s just kind of stuck. I really appreciate that generation, not just for them defeating the Nazis, but just all the wisdom that I gained from the people of that generation that I’ve come in contact with in my life that have spoken to me sensibly and intelligently. Unlike much of what I get now when I go out and talk to people. I love painting what I’ve experienced. I love taking my… when I’m doing comic books, I like taking my comic characters and putting them through the wringer and almost amplifying some of the experiences that I’ve been through from my time in New Orleans or just traveling around the US when I was a younger guy. So, yeah, a lot of what I do will be birthed from personal experience, and I think that’s a huge lesson for artists, and it’s been a huge, you know, had a huge impact on my artwork as far as making sure that I draw from what I know.
BOOM: Is it really easier to sell a $5,000 painting than a $500 painting?
Sean Dietrich: It very much is easier to sell a $5,000 painting versus a $500 painting, and here’s why. When I was selling paintings for, let’s say, two to $500. It was almost like a bunch of used car salesmen standing around my booth. It was people that didn’t. There was no perceived value. People would come up and they’d be like, “Oh, dollar, $200, 300. Hey, man, can you take $50 off?” But when you’re sitting there and you have paintings for five, six, $7,000 up on the wall, people know to take you fucking seriously, and it scares off people. You know, the right people will walk up. Most people will be like, “Oh, that’s out of my budget.” Okay, well, let’s talk about reproductions, prints, merch. But the people that actually want to buy artwork that’s priced at that, that’s a different kind of person. That’s someone that really appreciates the art. You know, your art’s going to a good home, and for me, it’s really put me in contact with some wonderful people that have influenced my life and have become great friends, and it’s just a breath of fresh air. So, it is 100% way easier, less effort, less bullshit to sell a $5,000 painting versus a $500 painting. That’s what that sentence means.
BOOM: Tell us about some of the commissions you’ve worked on.
Sean Dietrich: I’ve done some pretty cool commissions. My favorite is a painting I did for my friend John. He commissioned me to do a piece commemorating his grandfather who stormed Normandy and fought all the way to Germany in WWII and lived to tell the tale, and, it was about a five-year process of trying to figure out how the hell I was going to paint this thing. It’s 6ft by 4ft. The thing’s huge, and I didn’t just want to do a dreary world war two painting. So I read books, I watched documentaries, I refreshed myself on the particular battles, such as the Battle of St. Lo that he was at, and, you know, kind of went from there, and what we came up with, or I came up with and he approved, was animalizing all the weaponry to make it just this real surrealistic look at WWII. So, there’s Tellermine beetles, the Willys jeeps are spiders, there’s MG42 mosquitoes. So, it’s this crazy look at his grandfather’s time at WWII seen through, you know, Dali esque eyes, and, it was a pretty amazing commission because I started it, the actual painting of it, during COVID lockdown. So for about eleven weeks, I streamed almost every night on Twitch, and he and a bunch of other people were able to tune in and kind of take their mind off the bullshit that was going on, and he could actually see his painting come to life, and then that year, on the anniversary of D-Day, we did an unveiling, and everybody tuned into Twitch, and we were able to show off the painting and sell some prints, and I drank a little Absinthe, and had a good old time.
BOOM: Have you worked with any celebrities?
Sean Dietrich: Have I worked with any celebrities? I did a guitar for Flogging Molly, for their Salty Dog tour. It’s a boat trip they do where they play on the boat and there’s pro skaters, and my friend Emily, who runs Punk Rock & Paintbrushes, set up in art gallery. But she also asked me if I would do a guitar that they all signed. So I did one based off one of my favorite songs, There’s the Devil’s Dance Floor, and it auctioned off and the money went to their charity.
BOOM: Woo hoo! A win win! So did you really start a cult?
Sean Dietrich: Well, I didn’t start a cult, but my twitch followers, who took a liking to a painting that I did, we named Cockpaw because in the original sketch of the Cheshire Cat that I drew, I drew him as a Maneki Neko Kitty, one of the little good luck kitties where his arms waving up and down, and, one of the guys thought, “Oh, his paw looks like a cock,” and I said, “Cockpaw, sounds like a great name,” and somebody yelled out, “all hail Cockpaw!” and that just became a thing and it built from there, and so we put something in our Discord called Cult of Cockpaw, and people would leave offerings which were like gifs, or funny images, or just general stupid shit that we all thought that maybe the Cheshire would laugh at. So, yeah, that’s about where it ended. So, it’s still up, it’s still running. It’s an underground cult. But don’t worry, it’s not anything that’s going to get out of control.
BOOM: You are writing a book?
Sean Dietrich: I am! I’m working on kind of a magnum opus of mine. It’s called How To Succeed as an Artist and Other Lies, and basically, it’s going to be the ultimate artist business book and the ultimate book about how to live an artist’s life, and, I don’t mean it in a literal blueprint kind of way. Half the book is going to be about my journey as an artist, seen through my experiences, and how they influenced my art so as to help other artists potentially come out of their shell a little, or get out on the road more, or just at least pay attention more in life, and draw from it, and use it to further creative ammunition.
BOOM: Why should we read it?
Sean Dietrich: Why you should read it is because it’s fucking cool, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time, and it’s also a kind of a pushback against a lot of these online sales funnel “I got the way to make million dollars of selling art.” Pure scams, a lot of them, and others are genuinely trying to help, but they’re very misguided because they don’t realize that some of the stuff that they say when they say, “Oh, this doesn’t work and this doesn’t work and this doesn’t work, but my method works.” But then they don’t realize that, like, if that doesn’t work, you’ve just destroyed all hope for that artist because you also said that all this other shit didn’t work. So, so it’s going to show you that anything can work. You just have to go about the right way of making it work, and so it’s going to give you advice on everything from pricing, to selling, to licensing, to merchandising, to touring. Everything the aspiring artist needs in a no-bullshit book with lots of inspiration for how to live your life and how to draw from experience and then how to take that and grow a career out of it.
BOOM: Woo hoo! You’ve got a killer podcast coming up called Drink Tickets. Tell us about it and who you’ll be interviewing.
Sean Dietrich: I do. I’m working on a new podcast. It’s called Drink Tickets, which I know doesn’t have a really artsy name, but it’s what I used to get paid in to do live art, and there’s a lot of humor behind it too, which I’ll tell those stories when I do the podcast. But it just always left me laughing when I would receive these drink tickets from the promoters and they act as if they had pulled Excalibur from the stone and, but gave me the sword and said, “Hey, you could be King Arthur because you now have drink tickets.” So, I’m going to be interviewing artists that I mentor, artists that I’ve worked with. I really want to get, you know, obviously some current successful artists. Obey, Alex Pardee. “Crayola, if you’re listening, I’m coming for you.” Ten Hundred as well, would love to talk to him, but basically talking about the business and psychology of being an artist. So, what it takes mentally to take on the act of being an artist, to be that person, how it affects family relationships, what it feels like to banging out every day and feel terrified ten times a day that you may not be doing the right thing, and within these conversations, hopefully letting artists know that, “Hey, you’re not alone out there.” I know it feels that way because it’s a very lonely profession. But we’re all in the same ocean. We’re all in different boats, though, so we’re trying to build that one big boat that we can all be in and help each other, and then, the business side being, let’s talk about practical advice, let’s talk about out-of-the-box ideas, let’s talk about off the fucking wall ideas. Let’s talk about what we’ve been through and the lessons that we’ve learned in business dealings. As far as I’ve researched, there are very few books that are worth a shit and very little, few podcasts that even touch on this, and so amongst the artists that I’ve talked to, there is an immense interest, and I think being as I’ve had a pretty diverse career as far as industries I’ve worked in, licensing deals I’ve had, and the fact that I’m a little more outgoing than, let’s say, the average artist, and willing to do this, it really excites me to be able to get this podcast out. So, aiming for the winner, once I get back from tour, I’m looking to do my first few interviews. Yeah, we’ll launch it and hopefully start changing the lives of artists that deserve it.
BOOM: You are working with me on a forthcoming Warehouse for creatives project. Can you share a little about it and what you hope to accomplish?
Sean Dietrich: I am working on a forthcoming warehouse for creatives project. So, the project itself came about through discussions with Eric and Shari, two good friends of mine that have the tech know-how and are able to put this thing together as far as the actual software and, you know, the framework of it, and I assume I was brought in to kind of take my years of experience being an artist and seeing what artists need, and to help construct this thing that we’re calling the warehouse, and basically, it’s going to be an online meeting place, kind of like DeviantArt, kind of like Twitch, kind of like Instagram, Facebook, but in a very thought out, no popularity contest, no bullshit way. An environment where you can come in, you can live chat, you can set up a lounge, you can show off your new work. There’s not going to be an algorithm that makes it so, like on Instagram, your stuff doesn’t go out to 98% of your followers. It essentially is going to be a place where what I said earlier about trying to find that boat that all artists can be in instead of us being in the same motion but in different boats. This is that boat. So we want to create this space where ideas can be shared, real time, where events can be thrown, promotions can be done, ideas can be cultivated, and I know I’m sounding pretty vague here because we’re still building this thing, but just essentially imagine just a mecca for artists to actually come and relax and expand their careers, learn. There’s going to be a huge educational aspect to it. We’re going to talk about controversial subjects like fan art and AI and really dive deep into being, let’s say, activists towards change for the way certain technologies and attitudes in this industry are going. It’s kind of a dream project of mine I never knew I dreamt about, you know, it’s a thing that I’ve always wanted to see happen, and now with current technology, it’s actually, this can be a real thing. So we’re going to be taking everything that twitch and DeviantArt and social media, we’re taking a look at how those worked, how they functioned, what was good about them, what was bad about them, and then just implementing them into a new platform that’s going to, I think, change the entire dynamic of how artists communicate and how projects are collaborated on. So, yeah, I’m really, really excited. So, new book, new podcast. This warehouse this year is gonna be fucking awesome.
BOOM: It’s good to have you on board. Lastly, where can we find you online?
Sean Dietrich: Yeah, you can find me on Instagram, @seandietrich. That’s S-e-a-n and Dietrich spelled diet rich, an easy way to remember, and then, seandietrichart.com. I am not the red-bearded guy who writes about fried green tomatoes and lives in the south. That’s another Sean Dietrich, and we battle it out on Google. I get a lot of his fans that write me and, yeah, so seandietrichart.com and @seandietrich on Instagram. Those are the two platforms I use the most. I’m also on Twitch, and TikTok, and Facebook, and if you do a search for Sean Dietrich art, it’ll probably lead you in the right direction.
BOOM: Thank you for jumping on Transmissions!
Sean Dietrich: Hey, thanks for having me. It’s been a fun time, and I look forward to all the new cool and exciting projects that I’m working on, and I really, really hope to see, and hear, and meet, and help thousands and thousands of artists over the next few years. Thank you.
Discover Sean at https://seandietrichart.com or hit him up on:
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