The dissonance

Artist David Dees created evil and ludicrous conspiratorial messages and loved his rabbits

David Dees, an infamous artist, died in May 2020. In early 2012, I contacted David to get permission to use one of his images for my Sounds Sciencey digital column for Skeptical Inquirer. The piece was about the Mayan apocalypse and what people were perceiving as Portents of Doom. The image perfectly blended the idea of HAARP, chem-trails, and bird mass mortality events and it was reminiscent of a Fortean rain of fish. I had to use it. He graciously agreed. You can read this piece here.

At first, I thought Dees’ work was satirical. The more I followed him, though, it was clear that he really subscribed to these extreme conspiratorial scenarios he depicted in his art. Sad, but not surprising.

Once again, I’m going to promote an article by Robert Skvarla at Diabolique Magazine, a piece that clued me in to Dees’ death via this new short film about him by Brad Abrahams.

Dees is revealed as a talented artist who used to be a Hollywood commodity. He claims he was poisoned by acrylic paint that contained cadmium, which is not implausible. It was difficult to not feel great sympathy for Dees, who loves animals and lived alone, but also sadness for a highly intelligent and sensitive man who could not critically judge what he found on the Internet.

I was grateful to see this film for several reasons. First, it answered some questions about what he really believed and suggested his views had evolved. It explained why a working artist would so readily allow me to use his work without compensation (because he always took images off the Internet to use in his work). But, most importantly, it reminded me that people who believe really strange and dangerous things can be otherwise kind people. It’s an impossible message to absorb these days. I’m having trouble with it. I cannot reconcile my deep disgust of the anti-vaccine sentiment that he expresses with the fact that he made his yard a haven for domestic rabbits that bring him joy.

I was impressed at how much was packed into the twelve-minute film. After you watch the film, check out the Diabolique interview with the filmmaker linked above.

These are tough times: our brains are constantly struggling to manage the dissonance and confusion we feel every minute of every day. I sure am. Maybe we all have someone like David Dees around us - they are just trying to get by, make sense of the world, and find joy.

Watch “Do You See What I See?”