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You may not know Dennis Friel personally, but if you’ve participated in a prominent fishing tournament over the past two decades, there’s a good chance you have a shirt donning his artwork. Since his teens, the proud South Florida native has masterfully captured the energy of sport fishing and the complex beauty of marine environments in a unique style that has been celebrated around the world. Driven by a love of the water and a desire “to do more than just paint,” Friel launched his “Connected by Water” podcast in 2019, a move that catapulted him from a marine artist to an industry influencer. He’s now using his global reach to raise awareness about issues threatening the marine environment and the way of life that he represents.
Q: Which came first, fishing or art?
A: Art came first for me, but they were definitely connected and still are. They feed each other. I’ve always been drawn to art, but growing up in South Florida, fishing was a way of life for my family. I first started with bass fishing in the canals, and then later hitched rides to the beach to fish from the piers. My family would rent a boat in the Florida Keys for a couple of weeks in the summer, and that is when I first started fishing offshore. Those early interactions are what gave me the fuel to start drawing and painting fish. In fact, when I went to high school and started fishing offshore on my friends’ boats, my “contribution” would be to paint them a picture of whatever fish we caught that day. Eventually I started fishing the South Florida tournament circuit, where I built relationships with both the tournaments and participating boat owners. While the tournaments wanted my art for shirts, the owners commissioned custom pieces. So for me, fishing and art have always gone hand in hand.
Q: When and how did your artwork transition from a hobby to a profession?
A: I will never forget the first time I got paid for my art. I was 17 years old, and Tred Barta was my first paying customer. Growing up in South Florida, I stopped by the old IGFA headquarters in Pompano Beach, where I was fortunate enough to share some of my pieces with former IGFA President Mike Leech. After talking with Mike, I agreed to donate a few pieces to the IGFA auction at The Breakers, and he reciprocated with an invitation. As luck would have it, Tred won the piece I had donated to the auction. I remember he shook my hand, gave me his business card and told me to call him after the weekend. I did as instructed, and he commissioned me to paint a swordfish and sailfish for him.
After that I began freelancing while at Ringling College of Art and Design. I continued my art “work” in that capacity for the next 17 years while I built a successful career in the music industry. I developed a name for myself in the fishing industry too during that time, working with tournaments and doing more commissioned painting. It eventually got to the point where I was working two full-time jobs and the workload just wasn’t sustainable. When I finally made the decision to pursue an art career full time, I already had a steady flow of work to get me started, which allowed me to open Dennis Friel Art Studios in 2013. From there things continued to take off, and I launched Connected by Water in 2019 with my business partner, Harris Katz.
Q: How did Connected by Water come about?
A: After leaving my career in the music industry and pursuing art full time, I was doing so many different projects at Dennis Friel Art Studios—commissions, tournament artwork, custom shirt designs, magazine illustrations, etc.—but I still felt like we were missing something. During my 17 years in the music industry, I learned a lot about how the business world works and wanted to apply those principles to my new art career but was struggling with bringing it all together. My wife, Liz, recognized that water was the medium that connected my interests, passions and profession. And she was absolutely right. The credit for the name Connected by Water goes completely to her. But she deserves credit for much more than just the name. There’s no way this thing happens without her.
Q: You have created so many incredible pieces in your career. Are there any that are particularly special to you?
A: Every piece is unique, but I do have a few personal “Sistine Chapel” events in my life that stick out. The first is the mural I was commissioned to paint on the Atlantic Boulevard Intercoastal Bridge in Pompano Beach. I’m proud of the piece because it allowed me to leave my mark on an area that’s so special to me. I grew up in Pompano Beach and still live there today. It’s the place I had my first interactions with the ocean and much later built a studio for my work, so it’s an honor to represent my community. The second was when I was selected as a United States Mint AIP artist and had two minted coins for the states of Louisiana and Rhode Island as part of the American Innovations Dollar Coin Program. I’m a very patriotic person, so to be one of the 23 artists selected from around the country to work on this project was a true honor for me. And finally, being asked to do the cover artwork for the 2024 IGFA World Record Game Fishes was another great moment in my career. It brought me full circle from showing my early pieces to Mike Leech when I was 17 to now being asked to create the cover of IGFA’s premier publication. It was just a really special thing for me.
Q: How are you able to produce unique pieces after all this time? Do you ever struggle with “painter’s block”?
I always liked the quote from author Chuck Close: “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just get up and go to work.” Would it be nice to just run down to Chokoloskee and catch a few snook every time I needed some inspiration? Absolutely. But it’s just not realistic. That said, a creative block, or “painter’s block,” is 100 percent a real thing. At the end of the day I’ve found that you just have to push through it. You may not be happy with how you start out, but if you just keep pushing through, you eventually will find your rhythm.
Q: What’s next for you and for Connected by Water?
A: For me personally, kids and family are my life right now. I have a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old, so I’m really focused on being a dad. That’s the way I grew up. I will not be the guy whose kids wonder, “Who is my dad?” because I’m never around. What’s next for Connected by Water? I love painting, but I never wanted to do just that. Art has been my gateway to becoming a more meaningful part of the sport-fishing industry and culture, a culture that I’ve loved since I was a kid. We just recorded episode number 187 of the Connected by Water podcast, and it’s unbelievable how that has grown. When we started the podcast, we were really just doing it to have fun. Don’t get me wrong, we still have fun doing it, but we discuss some serious issues and topics. But I am OK with that. I see it as both an honor and a responsibility, as a steward of this sport, to use the influence of the podcast to raise awareness about issues impacting our waters and fisheries. Conservation is, and always will be, at the core of Connected by Water.
