David Adams

(American, b. 1950)

I grew up in the Western United States. We first lived in southeastern Washington and then in Northern New Mexico. I always enjoyed outdoor activities and sports along with the arts, literature, math and sciences. As a youth, I spent a lot of time in the mountains of New Mexico, the plains region of Nebraska and the red rock regions of southern Utah. From these experiences, I developed a deep and abiding reverence for the wondrous variety of landscapes and the many aspects/forces of Nature that exist there.

Along with exposure to the many forms and life in landscape, I was exposed to a variety of cultures and beliefs around me. I find the differences and shared views on which all culture and belief are based to be fascinating, something I continue to explore.

I paint non objective abstractions of place and time. Events that shape culture and community. Within that format, I like to explore possibilities of creating visual space composed of multiple layers and built of overlaid color variations, both transparent and opaque with lines defining suggesting objects. This in an effort to create a sort of glowing visual surface with a sort of see through depth. I explore colors and combinations to build a picture with dynamic energy that engenders calm. In this and other ways I like to explore opposites, contrasting forces in a vision of deconstructed space that may be either moving together or apart. Often suggesting a place where stuff is blowing around and by the viewer. Kind of like snow or debris blowing around. Pieces. Parts. Like memories.

I consider art as a form, design and color problem. I create the puzzle and then have to solve it. I don’t always have a clear picture of what I want the finished work to look like but maybe some of the colors to use and where they should go. Upon conclusion I name or title it. I look at the final work to see what it suggests to me. Sometimes the final idea/title coalesces as I work. At other times, it changes until I find a finish place.

I feel the works are composed of memory fragments or images seen and imagined and rearranged to offer a visual picture of a feeling experienced some place. Since most are in the loose visual format of landscape, I use that concept for interpretation for others.

What happened in that place? How did I feel and how did I change? Experiences, memories, moving through time and space. Things I think about. Impressions that come about like visual moving symphonies.

I feel the works are composed of memory fragments or images seen and imagined and rearranged to offer a visual picture of a feeling experienced some place. Siince most are in the loose visual format of landscape, I use that concept for interpretation for others.

What happened in that place? How did I feel and how did I change? Experiences, memories, moving through time and space. Things I think about. Impressions that come about like visual moving symphonies.

My paintings started as works with pastels on paper. These often included gold leaf and other media in the final pieces. In the early 1980’s I met an interior designer who specialized in furnishing very high end spec homes in the Palm Desert area. He wanted artworks to place in  these projects and the spaces required works of large scale. Initially I developed a way to make large format surfaces in aluminum for pastel paintings. These consisted of fabricated a face surface with a back frame that attaches and stands the panel off the wall 2” eliminating the need for framing.  Initially the use of aluminum allowed me to attach elements to the surface. My work later evolved to included acrylic paint and I now work primarily in acrylics with pencil, pastels and other media occassionaly added.

In 2015 I completed a large wall piece for an office building in Cottonwood Heights in Salt Lake County. This was part of an overall design that includes two walls, floor and ceiling design in a large entry lobby serving two adjoining buildings.  The installation consists of a large mural painting on 30” panels that is integrated into a grid of copper strips and cast bronze plates. The copper strips include flat wraped bands with relief panels which have photographic imagery pressed into the metal. All the metals are finished with a variety of patina colors. The painting is made of pastels and acrylic paints on prepared aluminum panels. All formatted to fit into a 15” square grid. This scale worked to fit the wall surfaces.