“When I was in school I never paid much attention to the Fine Art department’s push for conceptualizing. I just wanted to learn the fundamentals and to make sure that when I put paint to canvas I knew how it was going to react. The subject matter would have to come later.

 

In February of 1992, the Rodney King riots took place and in reaction to them I produced a series of multi media scribble drawings to depict the chaos that ensued. No matter how hard I tried there was always an organization to the attempt at chaos in my drawings. To my surprise this was reinforced when I saw images of people standing in line to loot stores.”

 

The patterned nature of the scribble drawings produced an abstract style of painting in the following years that lent itself to explorations of spirituality and the nature of death and decay.  The leafy patterns and washes of light and dark colors created an illusion of depth and a light heartedness that masked a more serious subject matter.  In the current solid-lined Stripe Series, David’s techniques for creating depth and interesting surfaces still speak to his investigation of deeper existential meaning through his painting.

 

“In the end it doesn’t matter how much control you have over the medium unless you realize how equally dependent you have to be on the accidental nature of abstract painting.”

 

 David Rose graduated with a BFA degree in painting and drawing from San Jose State University in 1992.