the story, or a "bio" if you will. a condensed one...

Born: Philadelphia PA

Gets first artist recognition at 2nd grade art contest, wins first prize (plastic squirrel) Grows up reading "Mad" magazine, tries his best to copy the drawing style of Don Martin.

Moves to southern New Jersey, and with not a lot to do, starts painting. Discovers first "fine art" loves (an Andy Warhol book from the middle school library, Raymond Pettibon drawings on the covers of Black Flag records and the collage art of Winston Smith from Dead Kennedy's album covers).

Paints through high school, applies to art school, gets into the School of the Museum Of Fine Arts in Boston. Moves to Boston. Goes to school. Gets into gallery that shows Keith Haring, Mark Kostabi, Ronnie Cutrone. Sells first painting at Newbury Street Gallery in Boston. designs posters for some rock bands (Aerosmith, Low, Jesus Lizard, Misfits, etc). Designs a bunch of tee shirts, record covers for bands of varying noteworthiness. Paints a mural. Gets some good press (Boston Phoenix, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, various art rags, zines, etc) Sells a good amount of work in the process.

Gets sidetracked being a drummer in rock band for a while. Stops drumming.

Moves to Los Angeles, starts the whole process again. Starts showing in LA galleries. Stops painting in bright colors and switches to a mostly monochromatic style (greytones). In shows with artists such as Raymond Pettibon, Marc Ryden, Kenny Scharf, Gary Baseman, Robert Rauschenberg, Ralph Steadman, etc. Sells a bunch of paintings to various people in various places. Commissioned by CAA (Creative Arts Agency) in Los Angeles to do 20 original paintings of big shot Hollywood famous types. Has a 2 person show with painter/illustrator Daniel Peacock. Has various successful solo shows. Exhibits at the Zimmer Museum, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, many established Los Angeles galleries, (Zero One Gallery, Robert Berman Gallery, James Gray Gallery, Ruth Bachofner Gallery,Gallery 825, Milo Gallery, etc.) and other galleries around the United States.

If you care about such things, Dean is in the collection of: Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Mr. Burns (Harry Shearer), Matt Damon, Steven Soderbergh, the Cartoon Network, Lisa Kudrow, Gary Calamar (KCRW dj/producer), and lots of other collectors/people that he neglected to record most of the names of.

When not painting he is usually doing something that involves "art" in one way or another, sometimes for love, sometimes for money- including collecting, usually collecting artists that he admires, such as: Peter Bagge, Raymond Pettibon, Yoshitomo Nara, Brian Chippendale, Daniel Clowes, Tony Millionaire, Daniel Johnston, and a bunch of others.