Wednesday, October 10, 2012


 Well before I begin, let me say sorry for the awkward formatting on these blogs. E-Blog is not very forgiving in the placement of photos and text. After conversing with my graduate school professor recently I decided to create a blog that chronicles the passage of my work through the years. Too often people see your work and think it was always that way. It is important for me to revisit these images as well for my own personal growth and sense of context.
  I began my work at Hunter college in the late nineties doing large scale paintings that seemed more sculpture than painting. These paintings were a continuation of work I was doing in my   undergraduate program at the University of New Mexico. I apologize again for the awkward placement of this text, E-blog will not allow me to adjust. Anyways, by 2000 my work had progressed to a more illustrative style. I found myself doing a large number of charcoal drawings, when my guiding mentor and professor juan Sanchez saw these works, he said "why are you not doing this work, rather than these large scale paintings. The paintings were becoming obscelete and unable to tell the narrative I sole desired to tell in my work. By the end of my graduate year, i turned these charcoal drawings into a short film. Below, are clips from two films i made during my graduate studies at Hunter College- one film was a combined effort with fellow grad student and artist William Powhida. Once I left hunter college I had no way to take these 300lb painted monstrosities with me, so i threw them away. This photo of me in front of those paintings is one of the few remaining evidence that exists of those paintings.
  My exit from hunter college was burdened with financial troubles as well. Technology was not as cheap as it is now. My graduate thesis exhibition was supposed to run for a month, mine ran for three days.  the cost to rent an LCD projector at the time was $500.00- you can own one for that kind of cash now, but back then it wasn't the case. As a result i dismantled my show after only three days. My exit from the New York art world went out with a whimper. As the years went by I began to fully embrace my illustrative style. I continue to focus my obsession with violence and horror, and let it take form within my work. I began doing work on commission for comic books, and other commercial art avenues. I still have a desire to create a gallery show exhibiting my work in the near future, and I hope that dream will arrive sooner than later. I hope you have enjoyed this little trip down memory lane and i hope it provided more insight into my work, it certainly did for me. Again, i appreciate any feedback, if not on this site, then on facebook.




Tuesday, October 9, 2012

 Well as some of you may know me and my writer partner Ryan Morrow have been working on a comic, well actually a few comics. Ryan had attemted to pedal for publishing a rough draft of one of these comics at C2E2 in Chicago this past spring, needless to say we need to get a final product together. I have posted some pics from that draft in an earlier blog post. I have been careful not discuss characters, titles and names, nor have I shown any scenes depicting characters because much of this project is still in the hush hush right now.
These latest pics are the first few pages of our main comic that we hope to have ready for
January 2012. Hopefully before then I will share character shots, panels, and disclose the title of this project, till then enjoy these small insights I am sharing. As always I appreciate any feedback.
  

Monday, October 1, 2012

Well another older pic. "The Hunger Artist" is now about two years old, but since I cannot remember posting this one I am bringing this little blast from the past back to the surface for another go. This type of transfiguration is where I hope to take the previous blogs piece (currently untitled and in progress). So stay tuned and we will both see what develops.
Well those of you following on facebook, and based on the comments I see on my blog and facebook, there are not many of you, will recognize this image. I went from a profile shot of myself, to playing with filters, to now duplicating and transforming the original by this new sketch. I plan adding more, lots more, and hopefully this blog entry will serve as motivation to see this one through to the end. As always any feedback is appreciated.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

 This is the old Grand rapids Public Museum I lived next to when I attended college. Before New York, Before New Mexico there was Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids Michigan. This is exactly how it looked.

 This is my old apartment building exactly one block from the museum. I lived on the top floor with my room mate John. We used dangle from the top balcony.
The Museum is no longer used for regular exhibition, but back then it was. You could walk through the museum as if you were the only one there, and often you were.
Walking around the museum alone, with my headphones on, I would sit and draw thinking "I own this space." Of course I didn't but I liked the idea. Surrounded by so much still "Lifeless life" it was very tranquil.
Experiences such as this transformed me into the artist I am today. considering lifeless antiquity as a thing of aesthetic beauty. The somewhat scary desolation and peculiarity of this environment played a larger role in things to come.




'Homecoming- an untitled history"pencil and oil pastels by David Davies
Even now as I embrace what I call my "aesthetisized horror" I  am reliving those experiences. In this classroom doodle I did you can see the old museum diorama rearing its head within the subject matter.










And there you have it, a little piece of my history. I hope you gained a little insight into my work.
  As an artist, especially a working artist, we wear many hats e.g. artist, illustrator, designer, and teacher.  Those of you who have been following my art know my style and subject matter. Most of what I deal with is an aestheticized violence translated into something I find beautiful or that has a subverted narrative.  Well I am here to tell you folks, that is not all that makes up my artistic life.
  Two days a week I visit several long term care facilities and conduct painting workshops. I draw the pictures, and through guided painting sessions I help hose in their golden years live out their passion. Depicted in this photo is one of my students, she is 92 and just getting warmed up!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

working on a comicbook






Well I'm not going into any specific detail on titles, characters, or plot- I have to keep a closed lid on a lot of this but me and my co-creator/writer partner are hoping to present our ideas in a nice complete package to some editors. These works, like everything I do are thematically tackling my own issues and thoughts surrounding theology, myth, violence and horror. I thought I would share a small peek at the work going on. It is an anthology of sorts, so there are a few stories being worked on.