From humble beginnings in the Midlands of the UK, Aasen started his art career battling the commercialism of factory produced prints on canvas sold at stores like Ikea. Aasen wanted people to have an alternative and originality but still wanted to maintain affordability. Water colour and oil paints wasn’t his medium of choice, so he opted for the urban feel of spray paint. After completing his first few pieces, he signed his work as “Deathhouse”, an homage to his favourite LA based punk band, The Distillers.
The surging popularity of sites like Myspace gave Aasen the platform to showcase his work and soon he was being commissioned by the public for self portraits in the Deathhouse style. Aasen’s approach involved painstaking stencilling and adding layers of colour that in the end didn’t just produce stunning pop art, but one of a kind pieces.
In time, he opened his first studio in the historic Fishmarket in Northampton. From this space and surrounded by other artists and fashion designers, Aasen with just a table, a chair, a kettle and a stack of canvasses set out on a full time career in art.
Aasen is a true artist, never settling for just the status quo and he continued to find new ways to express himself. After receiving bits of inspiration from famous quotations and a gift of a book that contained paper cuttings, he realised that his talent in masking tape stencils could be applied to the medium of paper. So not only could he give people immortality visually but also illustrate their favourite sayings and lyrics in the form of words. It was a whole new world for Aasen and a new chapter in the story of Deathhouse.
Now with a new space in the heart of the shoe factory district of Northampton, Aasen has taken Deathhouse to new heights with his ever popular canvasses and paper cuttings that has gained international recognition and seen him even design clothing for fashion house Fly 53. Aasen always has maintained an openness to his craft. People are able to visit him at his studio, where he can be found every day, hunched over his work, delicately cutting to produce another beautiful and truly distinctive piece of art.
