By Chris Rockwell

I’m often asked, “What is King Duce?”

For me, personally, King Duce is my canvas that allows me to create music, fashion, film and collaborate with other artists who inspire me to explore and celebrate their work. I’ve never been interested in mastering one art form or defining art into suffocating categories. I just like the process of expressing what I feel, see and hear, in whatever creative form it takes. And often times it’s a mixture of art forms wrapped into a single piece. And that’s why King Duce is a constantly changing collage made up of all the art forms that I explored growing up: music, painting, writing, athletics, film and photography.

This artistic collage approach is probably rooted in my first love of music, which is made up of invisible, yet colorful and fluid waves that come from an infinite vastness that I can’t even begin to understand or define. All I know is that when I’m moved to tears by music, and the people expressing it, I know I’ve connected to something beyond my comprehension. It begs the question, “Why does art need to be defined?” To me, the “Answer” is in how it makes us “Feel”. And, to me, that’s what art should be for everyone, regardless of what people want to call it.

My first collaboration was actually with my wife Becky. Before we started King Duce, she introduced me to fashion and dance as important art forms back when we were dating in high school. Like many people, I ignorantly viewed fashion as a superficial thing. I now admit that I was totally wrong. And as I opened my mind up and listened, I began to earn a deep respect for fashion as an amazing art form that allowed people to express themselves, similar to that of a painting or a song. Becky has always created her own outfits using a blend of second hand stores, sewing, and discovering trippy cool accessories from anywhere off the beaten path. Then, depending on her mood, she would intuitively assemble these pieces into an outfit that would be uniquely her own. Thank God I eventually recognized this because my country boy fashion sensibility growing up was a predictable template of Levi’s, concert t-shirts, high tops and, yes, a mullet. There, I admitted it. Now let’s move on and never speak of the mullet again!

Often times, true inspiration comes in the simple moments interacting with another person and being open to look outside ourselves and appreciating their individual expression. For example, watching my wife teach art to mentally challenged kids and seeing them light up because they created something beautiful is art in its purest form. That’s as awe inspiring to me as the music of Beethoven; the paintings of Van Gogh; or the writings of Shakespeare.

King Duce was created to give all of us the platform to create and express our own unique voice. And that’s what art and life is really about. In this light speed world of outside pressures, we spend much of our time worrying about what we are not, rather than embracing and celebrating what and who we are. Art is about fluid motion and feel. And so is a person’s life. We all have our own unique gifts. So take the time to get to know what inspires you. And with a little determination and belief in yourself you will create anything you dream. It’s already inside of you.

Duce Up!!