Nicole Brice
Apr 22, 2026
Deanz is a deep soul channeling the complexities of human existence into art.
Joseph Dean Black, known artistically as Deanz, is an emerging creative force from the Lafayette, Louisiana area. His visual language carries the manic urgency of Jean-Michel Basquiat — raw, unfiltered, and unapologetically human. But Deanz isn’t an echo of influence. He’s a frequency all his own. Somewhat elusive by design, Deanz also produces an underground zine alongside his portrait work, cultivating a mystique that only deepens the impact of his art.
I first encountered his work through the cover art he created for the Louisiana band Mayrunner. The image didn’t sit still. It pulsed. It felt like something torn straight from the subconscious and pinned to paper before it could disappear. Over time, our conversations unfolded slowly, carefully — and I realized the mystery surrounding Deanz isn’t marketing. It’s protection. What he creates is intimate. It bleeds. In the months that followed, we began exchanging messages, and I found myself drawn not only to his work but to the presence behind it. There’s a veil of secrecy surrounding Deanz — a deliberate distance between the art and the man — yet what comes through is undeniable. He is more than a creator; he is a deeply introspective soul expressing himself on a frequency few dare to explore.
Though he identifies first and foremost as a writer, his visual artistry speaks just as powerfully. Channeling severe childhood trauma and lived experience into his work, Deanz creates pieces layered with emotional depth and complexity. His writing and imagery move beyond surface aesthetics, confronting the human condition with honesty and intention. In a world oversaturated with noise and spectacle, his creations offer something increasingly rare: substance and authenticity.
Mixed Alt Mag was granted an exclusive interview with the mind behind the zine and the art — and the conversation was anything but ordinary. Dive in below.
MaM: I am honored you decided to speak with me today. Let’s just jump right in. Tell me a little more about yourself.
Deanz: I’ve been writing for about 14 years, and this is the first time someone is writing about me. I am the ripe age of 25.
MaM: Take me through all of your writing and the things you’ve done so far. How did the name Deanz come about?
Deanz: Well, my name is Joseph Dean Black, and I had a bunch of stuff at work, my doodles and literature that people would touch, and I would say, “Hey! That’s Deanz shit”, and then I made a zine, met a lot of cool people, and the rest is here now.
I am all literature. I started writing when I went into foster care in Baton Rouge. From there, I took everything I’ve learned, from all of the darkness in the world, and I kind of found myself in a place that’s still okay. So, I’ve just been writing. I have published and unpublished four anthologies. I’ve got a little over 800 short stories and poems. A lot of imagery, really. I don’t know what my writing style is, but I’m gonna just keep doing what I do, which is writing.
MaM: So, you write from experience. The pain of existing. Unfortunately, they say pain makes the best art.
Deanz: There are a lot of prefaces to it, too, like what I write. If you’re not ready to understand that about me or about someone else, and you read it, and you’re not in the right headspace, you can fuck yourself up with the content.
I actually have a book titled “Why Joe Black” because that wasn’t the name I was born with. I changed my name when I got out of foster care, and the preface of the book states that I’ve been beaten, raped, starved, homeless, neglected, and left to the state of Louisiana. I always tell people, I promise you – everything is going to be okay. I pinky promise you. My plot twist – your dreams come true. Just stick with it. I kind of write just based on the current emotion, and I don’t rhyme. I like imagery. If I can get it on paper, I no longer have to live with it in my head.
MaM: I can resonate with that. I have a journal that I just keep random quotes, bits of nothing, etc., in, but sometimes those quotes and notes fit later on when I sit down to write.
Deanz: It’s so crazy that all of this is happening now, because when I got started, I had a family of five, and art wasn’t really going anywhere. I was just helping people. Now, it’s starting to get noticed. I’m not really an artist. I doodle so people will learn. I want people to be entranced by something visual because they use their visual sense before their common sense, so I’ll draw something, they'll turn it around and possibly learn something about themselves. That’s how we get better.
MaM: You’ve said a few times that you’re not an artist, but I don’t think you realize the impact your drawings have. Your art is very reminiscent of the late 70s/early 80s art scene in NYC – it’s very Basquiat-inspired, but then you release it under Deanz, and no one knows who you are, so it has this level of intrigue.
Deanz: I don’t like my face to be on the internet. I’m okay with being around people, and being introduced to others in public to see people’s faces, but I don’t see a lot of value in putting yourself out there too much. Like with social media, we have to do what needs to be done. Sadly, we have to give in a little.
MaM: It’s all a role. A role in society.
Deanz: I understand that the foundation we have now will not carry with the generations to come. It’s not going to carry with my generation, and I understand that everything I try to put my hand in, it may be small now, but that’s the forefront. That is the basis of it. Everything that will be built will be based on this, and it will carry the next generations because we are in a renaissance.
MaM: Yep, agreed.
Deanz: All of these art forms are becoming new again. Physical media. If you don’t grab it, it’s going to grab you, and it’ll be too late. We are so much more than we have been taught to be. I tell all the youngsters all the time, they undersell us because they plan to underpay us.
MaM: What all do you plan to work on in the future? What’s the trajectory look like?
Deanz: I plan to start a new magazine called Humane, because we are the blue beams, we are the star people. I’m trying to remind people that first, you must be human. You are born a human, but then we are taught to be people through society, and that strips things away, or better yet, it covers it up with things they deem to be useful. If you let those things go and sit in it all, you can shed them and become human again. That’s the goal.
MaM: How do you see yourself in the grand scheme of this renaissance?
Deanz: I have a dream, and if my dream comes to fruition, I will die early. I will give my community what they need, and if I need to die, then I will. I understand that I am incredibly young to understand and feel what I am feeling, but I am so ready to give my life to ensure we remain as genuine as we can. We’re almost gone. We’re almost robots. We have a phone in our hands, and we’ve brought them into our homes, so we’ve brought society into our heads and homes.
Everything we do is based on what someone is going to feel about it. I need to find a new question to ask people. I can’t tell people what to think, and I can’t tell them answers, but I can ask them questions to make them think. I understand pain that most will never. I do free art. I don’t charge anything. I don’t care to be in people’s wallets. I care to be in their minds.
In my dreams, all of our dreams come true. Keep dreaming. Don’t give up on yourself. Poetry doesn’t have to rhyme. What you write doesn’t have to do be coherent. What you do doesn’t have to make sense. As long as you do it and are honest with yourself, people will get it. They will feel something.
MaM: I have a feeling you are going to change the face of art in the new era, and your work will become part of the next urban art movement. You say you aren’t an artist, but your work speaks volumes.
Deanz: I don’t believe that I am an artist, and I say that to be as humble as I can, but there is a style of art now called Deanz because it is Dean’s style. I need people to feel, and if you don’t feel, then you are dead, and why are you here?
Deanz isn’t building a legacy the traditional way – and that’s the point. In a city like Lafayette, where art has always lived as much in back rooms and on street corners as in formal spaces, his work carves out its own lane. It rejects polish, refuses permission, and thrives. Long after trends shift and scenes evolve, what will remain of Deanz is the residue of his presence – the life he led, the voices he amplified, and the quiet revolution of creating on his own terms.
To learn more about Deanz and his work:
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Instagram:
Deanz (@deanzzine) • Instagram photos and videos
