About David
Bio
David Shannon grew up in Spokane, WA and graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena with a BFA in illustration in 1983. David began his career working as a free-lance editorial illustrator in New York City. His work has appeared in many publications including Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone, as well as on numerous book jackets and theater posters. David has also received international acclaim as the author and/or illustrator of over 40 books for children, including No, David! and A Bad Case of Stripes. For the past several years he’s been concentrating on abstract oil paintings which have been exhibited in a number of group shows including Art in the Time of Corona online at Dab Art and a solo show, Incognition, at the SPARC gallery in South Pasadena. See exhibitions.
Artist Statement – ABSTRACT/CONTEMPORARY
The world is nuts. Irrationality is rampant and subjective manipulation of objective fact pushes and pulls at the truth. Something that is horrific from one standpoint may be absurdly funny from another. We seem to be at an inflection point of so many inter-related and opposing forces that it’s hard to tell where one begins and another ends.
That’s at the heart of what I try to express in my paintings. Interplay between abstract and representational elements allows for multiple, often conflicting, interpretations and reflects the difficulties of making sense of contemporary culture. Elements of the picture seem to be something recognizable but aren’t exactly.
I want my pieces to be about something – to explore a concept, present a problem, ask a question, state a point of view, or even make a snide remark – so there’s intention behind the images, but I also want to leave plenty of room for the viewer’s interpretation. There’s a lot of subconscious stuff going on, too, some of which I recognize and emphasize, but others that are discovered later. In many instances, there are several related ideas going on, ranging from apocalyptic to whimsical – again reflecting the nature of the world today. And usually some humor sneaks its way into the painting. To me, humor represents hope and I try to be optimistic – even during these strange times.
Artist Statement – BLACK STILL LIFES
These pieces explore the elements of a painting within a minimalized set of criteria. Figure/ground is reduced to no more than a few common still-life objects, usually black, placed in a simple setting of grays and muted colors. This tends to equalize the focus of the painting across all its elements rather than just the main object(s). Composition, line, form, color, light, and surface texture are generally on equal footing with content.
The concept for these began as an expression of the times we live in. They’re immediately recognizable as traditional still-life paintings, but the introduction of black objects tells the viewer that something is wrong here. The objects themselves are standard and classic subjects – fruit, flowers, bottles, a water pitcher – that tend to symbolize life, culture, perhaps even joy, were they rendered in full color. The blackness gives the objects an iconic feel. It allows them to suggest something other than a piece of fruit or a bottle. The are both densely solid and an empty void. The simple compositions contain subtle, unexpected incongruities – lines that should meet don’t, forms that usually overlap instead coincide, edges are lost and found, angles aren’t always in perspective. These incongruities create a tension within the painting that reflects the challenge of encountering irrationality on a daily basis. Surprisingly, the paintings don’t feel as grim as one would think. Beauty still exists in the muted colors, pleasing shapes, variations of surface texture, and even the reflected light that defines the black objects.