About

David grew up on expansive flat plains, under the big skies of Texas. As a boy playing on the red clay banks of the Red River, often staring up at massive clouds filled with thunder, he developed a love for the wonders of Nature. He carries a love for the drama of that land wherever he goes today. He long ago left the borders of the USA, living for a time in Israel. David first visited China in 1993 with his wife and best friend Leela, experiencing a China that had only recently opened its doors to the West. After returning to the USA to start a family, they again returned to the Middle Kingdom in the year 2000, where they still reside today.

Education
He holds a Master of Fine Arts with focus in painting and drawing from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He also holds a BFA in illustration from UT Austin and has worked as an illustrator and graphic artist.

Art and Ideas
David’s artwork lives in a space between the figurative and the abstract, as his philosophical interest is in the unity of material and spiritual reality: What we directly observe is the physical world, but we must be mindful that the true reality is the abstract truth that this visceral world constantly refers to. The main focus of David’s study of art has been in the use of line, texture and color on the two dimensional plane (drawing and painting) to depict images that evoke a recognition of beauty and draw one’s attention to the axiological thread which forms the warp and woof of our current reality.

Having originated from a Euro-American tradition, he has found it enriching to explore the Eastern perspective in his new home of China. He has lived and worked in China for over 19 years, where he is currently serving as a Visual Arts Teacher, practicing his art and learning from the diverse people he meets in the ever-changing landscape of that country of the future.

Major artistic influences include: Painters: Mark Tobey, Richard Diebenkorn, David Hockney, Charles Field (David’s MFA professor), Brice Marden and of course Vincent Van Gogh…; Illustrators: Michael Whelan, N. C. Wyeth.

Art and Belief
David is a member of the Baha’i Faith which is the most recent manifestation of the teachings of God to humankind, guiding a disoriented people on it’s ever-advancing climb towards a higher expression of civilization and unity. The Prophet-Founder, Baha’u’llah, states that art should be used for the spiritual upliftment of mankind. Life can be triumphant or tragic, but it is always beautiful. Art should reflect that reality and serve as a ladder to the path of positive knowledge and eternal truth.