Okay we'll start with the easy stuff. My name is Derreck and I was born in '78 in the East Flatbush/Canarsie section of Brooklyn. I have a Mom (Sandra), a Dad (Johnnie), a younger sister (Cortney) and a younger brother (Ian). I think my biggest accomplishment in my Brooklyn years was getting skipped in elementary school. I skipped 2nd grade, therefore being one year ahead of myself for the remainder of my academic career. I took piano lessons also, but don't ask me to play anything. The extent of my piano lesson memory is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and "Chopsticks". Even "Chopsticks" is a little shaky.

At age 12, my family and I moved out to suburban Long Island. My mom explained to me that we were "outgrowing our house." Never understood what that meant at that young age. All I knew was wherever we were going, I'd be allowed to ride my bike in the street. We then trekked it out to Westbury, Long Island where I lived ever since.

Besides the obvious, my other interests include basketball (playing and spectating), watching TV, movies, reading, sleeping, eating, music (hip-hop, R&B, reggae, jazz), helping others and sleeping some more.

I don't know exactly when I decided that I wanted to become an artist as a profession. I went through a variety of phases. I wanted to be a fireman, a veterenarian, a comic book artist (Jim Lee inspired me like you wouldn't believe)...I think it was high school when I said to myself that commercial art was the way to go. Y'know...advertising, billboards and stuff like that. At the same time, I was heavily into computers as well. I've always been actually. The first computer my family ever had was an Apple IIc. It was at the at the advice of my parents as well as my high school's computer teacher Mrs. Basile that I should combine my love for computers and art. People described it as the "wave of the future". So I figured I'd give it a shot.

Many people ask what the term "dropheavy" means. One night I sat down and was trying to think of names for a site. A personal site to express myself. I don't know if you want to call it an epiphany, but the words "drop" and "heavy" popped into my brain. Put together as a self-invented compound word, it sorta had a nice ring to it. At least that's what the majority of my friends said. I hope they were honest. My parents still don't like it.

In my mind, dropheavy is anything you want to release with a bang. All the bells and whistles. You want to show something to someone and you're excited about it? Drop it heavy. Get that person just as excited. That's my philosophy. Go all out.

This site is schizophrenic. It has 3 personalities: a self-expression unit, a vehicle for freelance work and a digital portfolio.

The elephants are just a metaphor for being heavy. Nothing more, nothing less. Plus they look cool when you use 'em correctly.

By the way, this is version 2 of dropheavy.net. If you never saw the first version (and not many did), click here.