Memory and imagination ... these are the creative forces from which spring artistic innovations. David French uses these forces to explore the possibilities of painting and sculpture. "Evocation," a new exhibit of his carved and painted wood pieces, opens Thursday, Aug. 5, at the Linda Hodges Gallery in Pioneer Square. In these works he achieves an arresting connection between the natural world and the artist's vision.
The objects come from the artist's hand, yet they seem to have their own history. At first glance their organic shapes suggest that they might be found on a forest floor or formed in the sea. There appear to be seed pods, sticks and antlers. There are gourd-like objects as well as some that remind one of bits of coral and sea anemones.
But look again. They are a blend of opposites: representational and abstract, elegant and absurd, solid but with interior spaces. It's as if the artist has had a dialog with the materials and the story is never fully revealed.
The material French works with is basswood, and, in a way, the wood does communicate with him. Each piece of wood is different. Although French has a clear sense of what he wants to achieve in a finished piece, he's also guided by what's happening to the wood as he works with it.
"The artist must be attentive to what's occurring. Art is a process of creative talent and discovery," says French. His concept is a variation on the view held by traditional Native Alaskan sculptors who believe that they work to release the form already within the ivory, soapstone or wood that they sculpt.
When the various wood segments that compose one of French's pieces are ready, he paints them to give the form more definition. Here again, there's a process of evolution. Layers of paint are laid down; some are sanded off; more might be added. The piece isn't complete until the paint has provided volume, enhanced the dimensionality and even created internal spaces.
At school, French focused on drawing. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Atlanta College of Art, but his informal experiences in the art world have been equally important in shaping his career. After college he was hired as an assistant by an Atlanta gallery that showed the work of some of the nation's top painters and photographers. He met and talked with all of them and, at the same time, learned about the rarified gallery scene.
He met the outsider artist The Rev. Howard Finster, who lived a couple of hours north of Atlanta. French was charmed and fascinated by this amazing man who "could do anything with anything from buttons to an old Cadillac." The eclectic Rev. Finster created religious chapels as easily as he did album covers for REM and Talking Heads. French visited him often and developed a great interest in folk art. Through folk art he has learned more about the manner in which impulse and intuition guide an artist's work.
From Atlanta he went to Germany where he shared a studio in Berlin with his then wife. Rent was cheap before the Berlin Wall went down, and the West German government paid a 10 percent bonus on all salaries. That made it possible to get by on whatever pickup jobs filled in the hours when he wasn't doing his art. It was in Germany that he became enamored with wood.
When it came time to move back to the States, he chose Seattle after consulting atlases and talking to friends. He wasn't interested in living in a huge city, but he wanted some of the benefits of urban life. When some friends said Seattle had that as well as mountains and great scenery, he made the move, sight unseen.
His first apartment was at Ninth and Howe with a dead-on view west. How could anyone not love living in Queen Anne with the water and the Olympics to look at every day? He still lives on Queen Anne Hill.
Soon after his move, galleries in Washington and Oregon began to show interest in his work; then came exhibits in galleries across the country. In a relatively short time, French was able to give up the odd jobs and concentrate on his art. He now works in a wood studio on Queen Anne and has a studio in Ballard where he paints and puts the pieces together.
When asked to describe his artistic goals, he returns to the notion of things that are familiar and mysterious at the same time. "I want to create objects that are surprising," he says, "objects that are really beyond words." You'll see some of them through Aug. 28 at the Linda Hodges Gallery.
"Evocations" will be on exhibit Aug. 5-28 at the Linda Hodges Gallery, 316 First Ave. S., 624-3034. Gallery hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays.[[In-content Ad]]
