#197: Unleashing Creativity and Hidden Potential
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On today’s episode of The Richer Geek Podcast, we have the extraordinary David Drebin, a multidisciplinary artist working in various art forms, producing limited edition works including Photographs, Lightboxes, Neon Light Installations, Diamond Dust works and more.
David shares his unique approach to empowering individuals to uncover their hidden potential. From his early days as a photographer to his current mission of inspiring others, he offers valuable insights into creativity, self-discovery, and the transformative power of human connection.
In this episode, we're discussing...
The Power of Self-Understanding: David emphasizes the importance of knowing oneself as a foundation for understanding others.
The Creative Process: He discusses the importance of fear and discomfort in the creative process, and how to embrace them to produce groundbreaking work.
Unleashing Your Superpower: Learn how David helps people identify their unique talents and passions through insightful conversations and intuitive understanding.
The Impact of Human Connection: Discover the transformative power of genuine human connection and how it can inspire and empower individuals.
From Park to Broadway: The vision for a global, interactive platform to inspire and uplift.
Resources from David
Resources from Mike and Nichole
+ Read the transcript
Mike Stohler
Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Richer Geek Podcast. Today, we're going to flip things up a little bit. We're bringing an extremely well-known, multi talented artist. He's a graduate of Parsons School of Design in New York City. If you know about design, you know about Parsons School, he's a multidisciplinary artist, various art forms, including very limited edition works, Photographs, Lightboxes, Neon Light Installations, Diamond Dust. I have no idea what that is, but we'll find out after his first solo exhibition at Camera Work in Berlin in 2005, his release of his first comprehensive illustrated book, "Love and Other Stories" in 2007 it just took off from him. He's been to Montreal, art galleries in Los Angeles and New York, all around the world, and it's enough to talk about him. Let's introduce David Drebin. How are you doing?
David Drebin
I love that you mentioned Montreal first, because I'm Canadian. That's spectacular, even though I'm based in New York City. But I originally hail from Toronto, Canada, home of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who disappointed me every single year of my life.
Mike Stohler
Well, you know, I'm a Midwest boy, so I don't even know hockey, so I think maple leaves are, I just know, is it Canucks or the whatever and they just slap around and they fight each other. So that's what I like. I tune in hockey to see if they can fight.
David Drebin
Just like most business relationships, without the fist fighting, but it's more of the mental battles that you have every day, managing people in businesses all over the world. Same thing, fighting with the mind, fighting with the mind.
Mike Stohler
So David, before we get in, give us a little bit about your background. I always kind of like to dig in. Where in the world, and how in the world did you get the inspiration? And how did you become a successful artist?
David Drebin
My goal was never to be a successful artist. My goal was to find something that I really love to do, that I could be the best at it in the world, in my mind. And I realized at a very young age that I was the audience, before I wanted to find a global audience, that I was the audience, and I am my own harshest critic. So I was living in Vancouver, British Columbia in the 90s, and my roommate at the time was taking photography classes, and I thought, "Look at this guy." He's so creative, he wants to be an artist, and I made fun of him and one day, he came home with all these photographs of his co-workers, and he showed them to me, and their souls jumped off the page. It was like magic to me. And that's when I realized, at that very moment, that I wanted to get to know myself through my understanding of other people and capture souls. And photography was my medium to capture other people's souls in order to understand myself better.
Mike Stohler
Yeah, and that's one of the things. One of my big charities I give to, gives underprivileged, abused children, just people that were kind of dumped, they give them cameras, and they go create themselves. That's such a form of healing, because you see, not only the soul of the artist and why they think that this is a good medium, but you really understand it's like, I buy photographs every year. But it really is powerful, isn't it? The lens, how powerful that can be.
David Drebin
It's just a tool to express your imagination. So people always ask me, what kind of camera do I use? And it doesn't really matter what camera I use, it really is just a tool to express your imagination and to figure out who you really are. It's almost like stealing souls sometimes and oftentimes, I feel bad after I take photographs. I actually don't take photographs, I make photographs, and I feel like it's a little bit like stealing other people's souls. So as much as I love the image, I sometimes feel really guilty after I make the images, because I feel like I'm soul stealing. It's very conflicting internally.
Mike Stohler
Yeah, there are some you can just see the subject and you're like just going, the haunting of the stare or something like that it is, and you can actually feel a photograph. It's just absolutely amazing. When did you get into other different types of mediums?
David Drebin
I think it's really important to recreate yourself. So if you just do one thing, you just will be bored as a creator. Because it's really important to be scared when you're a creative person and you have to be able to think to yourself. This is a great idea. I don't think this is a great idea. I'm shit this might be a great idea. I think this is a great idea, and that really is the creative process. So once I felt like I was an expert at taking photographs, then I wanted to make neon installations. And once I really understood that, then I wanted to make sculptures. And then when I once I understood. That I wanted to make diamond dust prints. So for me, it's all about the creative process and being scared and digging deep to realize that you're good, you're not good enough. You might be great, you're shit, you're great, and you know what? You're actually great. But what I really want to do now is I want to help other people find their superpowers. So what I did recently was, I went to Washington Square Park in New York City with a sign that said, Free Readings (Who You Really Are). And the moment I took the wrapping off this sign that I had mounted, two people came up to me, four people came up to me, eight people came up to me. Within half an hour, I had hundreds of people lining up, and it wasn't Free Readings (Who You Really Are) . It's really what is your superpower? I want to help people find their own internal superpower so they can master their own creative process. And that is my true calling and my real passion, helping other people become great, that is my mission in life.
Mike Stohler
How are you doing that? Talk to us a little bit about the process. And a person comes up to you and what are you doing? What's the process? How do you know? How do you talk to them about their unique ability?
David Drebin
The first thing that people need to realize is that your energy introduces you before you say a single word. So I feel energy. I'm tapped into other people's energy. Once I feel the vibes, then I stare at people, and I ask them if I can look at them, into their eyes for about eight seconds, just like a dentist needs you to open up your mouth to examine your teeth, an eye doctor needs to look into your eye. I feel like I need eight seconds to stare at you deeply into the deep, dark depths of your soul. And after feeling your energy and looking deeply within you and having a very calm moment, then I get to work, and I do my best to understand other people deeply, because I've been able to understand myself deeply. You can't know other people until you understand yourself, and once you feel like you understand yourself, then you could try your best to understand other people, and my goal is to understand others and to help identify their superpowers. Because everyone has a superpower, they just don't know what it is. A lot of the time.
Mike Stohler
Yeah. It sounds like you're very passionate about this. What is it? Have you felt internally by helping people you know you talk about, This is your passion. This is WOW. This is my calling." Dig in a little bit deeper. It's like you've helped these people.
David Drebin
I'll give you a great example, sort of interrupt. I had a huge crowd. This one guy slowly walked up to the podium in the middle of Washington Square Park in New York City, and he said, "Hi, how are you doing?" I said, "I'm great. How are you doing?" I felt his energy. I said, "Let me look in your eyes."Stared at him, looked at him. "Don't look away. Look at me. Don't look away." Eight seconds, and then I said, "What's your dream?" He goes, "I want to be a singer." I said, "Do you sing?" He goes, "I sing sometimes." I said, "Why don't you sing right now?" He goes, "No, no, no, I don't want to sing right now." I said, "No, you are going to sing right now to this huge audience." And I looked to the crowd, I said, "Do you want this man to sing?" And they're like, "Yeah. Sing!" He goes, "No, no, no, I can't sing." I said, "Oh, you're going to sing. You can't leave until you sing." So he dug deep within and he started to sing quietly. Then he started singing a little bit louder, little bit louder, little bit louder. Then tears started streaming down his face, and the crowds were coming in, more and more people. And then he belted out this unbelievable song for about three minutes. And when he was finished with the song, with tears streaming down his face, the crowd started going wild for this guy, the fact that I can help one person dig deep within and find their superpower to have that belief in themselves was what made it all worthwhile to me.
Mike Stohler
Absolutely and who knows, six months from now, a year from now, three years from now, you may be hearing about this guy on Broadway. You just don't know what medium and how the consequences of you helping people that are so good, it's how you can become a success, is we get so bogged down into doing everything and nothing at the same time. And I found that in my business, I need to find my unique ability. Now, instead of being artistic wise might be in the business realm, but as soon as I found my unique ability, it's like, "Oh, I'm really good at this." But you know, I suck at all these other things, so I push them off and hire people to do those different things and concentrate, because I'm much happier doing what I love, right? Where do you see this new thing six months from now? A year from now? What? Is your goal in all of this?
David Drebin
I've gone to the park four times, and all four times it was extremely busy, very fast, and I've spoken to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. And the goal for me is to help other people have this deep belief in themselves. The thing is, this could be a global, worldwide phenomenon, because who doesn't want to be understood. The biggest issue I have is, can I speak to everybody? How could I help everybody? And I just could only help so many people, right? The people line up to talk to that person who has a sign that says "Free Readings". And oftentimes people say, "How much do I owe you?" I'm like, "It says Free Readings". It's not really free reading, it's more. How can I help you find your superpower? And everybody wants to give me money, but I won't take $1 from anybody, and what makes the best psychics and the best mediums are when they say, "I will not take $1 from you because I'm working with the universe, and I'm channeling the universe through me deep into your soul to help you become the best version of yourselves." And the reality is it's a spiritually uplifting experience for me, and I don't want to have spiritually depleting experiences in life. I want to have spiritually uplifting experiences in life. So for me, it's all about working with the universe, channeling the universe through me, helping other people become great, and finding their superpower, because I was lucky enough to find mine and monetize mine over a very long period of time. So it's giving back, and it feels great to give back to other people, to help other people become great. That is my goal.
Mike Stohler
Yeah, absolutely. And it's good for you. I mean, that's everybody needs that, especially in this day and age where I'm not even talking about suicide rates and just all these depression and everyone's on drugs, everyone's doing...
David Drebin
The biggest issue is the crowds, huge crowds. So I try to get to everybody, and I get upset, if I just I've stood there for hours in like intense summer New York heat, sweating, just squeezing the juice out of myself, just to give everybody one last drop of my deep want to understand them and to help them become great, because when you give is when you get back. I just want to help people because it makes me feel good. It's kind of selfish that I want to have this great experience where I can help people unlock the key to their own belief in themselves. And that's my true passion, helping people believe in themselves. And the universe rewards me in very different ways. Afterwards, it's incredible, truly.
Mike Stohler
Oh, it has to be. So what's the next step out of the park?
David Drebin
Right now, I'm working a controlled, in a control a small area in a very uncontrollable environment. Ideally, I'd like to have my own show. My own Broadway show, my mother passed away seven months ago. She loved Broadway. We went to Broadway shows together. And I want to recreate myself as a showman, to have my own one man show on Broadway in honor of my mother, to make all these people feel great where people who are scared to dance, want to dance. People are scared to sing, they start to sing. And I could pick people out of the crowd and bring them up to the stage and go, "What is your dream?" So I just know that.
Mike Stohler
There you go.
David Drebin
People want this. They would just come and it would be more interact most shows you see on Broadway, there are the performers and there's the audience. This would be an interactive show with the audience. No one knows who's going to be chosen, and that's the excitement. It's not just the person I'm talking to, but it's very entertaining to the crowd watching, because most people come up to me and they're like, "F*ck you. How do you think that you can understand me?" They're very confrontational. I actually deescalate all situations. 90% of people come up escalated, and I deescalate. It's like mental boxing. My dream is to have a Broadway show, one-man show, where people come and literally, it could be called Washington Square Park (What Is Your Dream?) That is my goal.
Mike Stohler
There you go. Nothing is a success if you don't have a goal, if you don't have a dream. With everybody's listening. And once we blast it out, all these thousands of people that can be listening to this, they're sitting there and saying, "You know what? I need someone to do that. You know I need to find David Drebin, or I need to at least communicate with him." How can people get a hold of you? How can you take this next step with my listeners and getting in touch with them?
David Drebin
Well, the thing is, this is something I only do in a controlled environment. I have so many people messaging me directly. It's almost like if you go see a play on Broadway and then you message the lead singer and ask them to sing a song for you. It doesn't work that way. You got to come see my show. But the thing is, the crowds are huge. Very quickly. I'm just kind of figuring this out as I go. My Instagram is @daviddrebin, D, R, E, B, I N, and the reality is that I never did anything to make money. I did things to become an expert and to become the best. And I feel like with art, it's about market share for wall space. And there are a lot of artists that you can choose to hang their artworks on your wall. I feel like this is an undefinable skill set that is unique to me, that I'm the only one who could actually do this, who could stand there for hours and hours and hours and help people find their superpowers. It's literally a unicorn skill set, and I feel like it's my calling. And I'd spoken to hundreds and hundreds of people, they line up in the park, and everyone leaves feeling great. Not a single person left until I said it was done. No one left. Everyone left with a nugget. Everyone left like, "Holy sht. How do you know that about me?" Next person, "Holy sht. How do you know that about me?"Everyone was thanking me, thanking me. So the goal is to help people find their superpowers right now, I'm in the park very occasionally when I feel like it, but the ultimate goal is to have my own show on Broadway, and I just know it will be packed every single night, because the audience is the entire world. What is your dream? Imagine a show on Broadway that was interactive, called Washington Square Park where you recreate the area that I'm in Washington Square Park, I have the showman uniform on, and I'm interacting with the crowd. They don't know who's going to be called up. It's their opportunity. It's very entertaining and very spiritually uplifting, and that is my goal, is to love the journey, and the results will be the results. But I'm loving the journey, kid. Loving it.
Mike Stohler
There you go, everybody. We have David Drebin. Thank you sir for coming on The Richer Geek Podcast. Who knows? Ladies and gentlemen, in a couple years or even maybe six months, you may see a marquee sign on Broadway...
David Drebin
Washington Square Park (What Is Your Dream?) Because people with undefinable skill sets move to New York City to create themselves, and that's the beauty of New York.
Mike Stohler
There it is, everybody. David, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and have a great evening.
David Drebin
Thank you.
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ABOUT DAVID DREBIN
A graduate of Parsons School of Design in NYC, David Drebin is a multidisciplinary artist working in various art forms producing limited edition works including Photographs, Lightboxes, Neon Light Installations, Diamond Dust works and more.
Following his first solo exhibition at Camera Work in Berlin in 2005 and the release of his first comprehensive illustrated book Love and Other Stories in 2007, Drebin experienced a stream of representation by some of the most prestigious galleries around the globe, Galerie de Bellefeuille in Montreal, Art Angels Gallery in Los Angeles, Preiss Fine Arts in Vienna, Immagis Gallery in Munich and Fahey Klein in Los Angeles.
Drebin's artworks also known as “Drebins” are unique and instantly recognizable as his own. His artistic style is often described as epic, dramatic and, above all, cinematic. At Art Miami in 2010, his piece “Central Park” sold for a record price of $78,000 through Contessa Gallery, which has featured David in major Art Fairs since 2008 alongside art world legends like Andy Warhol, Chuck Close, and Helmut Newton. In 2018, his photograph "Jerusalem" achieved a record sale price of $100,000 through Art Angels Gallery in Los Angeles.
His work combines voyeuristic and psychological viewpoints in a unique manner, offering the viewer a dramatic insight into emotions and experiences which many of us have doubtlessly felt at some point in our lives.
Drebin has released eight books with teNeues publishing including The Morning After, Beautiful Disasters, Chasing Paradise, Dreamscapes, Love and Lights, Before They Were Famous, Collectors Edition an oversized limited edition monograph and the most recently released Flirting With Danger. Drebin's books are distributed through the finest bookstores around the world.