Knowing the World: David Downs Learns About Art by Living It
The Artist, 2005. Colored pencil on canvas (48″x24″)
Interviewed by Cindi Di Marzo
“I believe that an artist is not made great by technical proficiency or knowledge but by knowing the world, understanding people and interacting with the subject matter. It is an artist’s responsibility to know the state of society, science and philosophy.”
David Downs
Painter David Downs takes his responsibilities as an artist seriously. Speaking with him reveals, through his words, gestures and the light in his eyes, a wise, compassionate and deeply reflective individual. One may be startled, after speaking with him, to realize that Downs is in his early thirties. Downs’s paintings are equally mature, imbued with a timeless quality that highlights his subjects’ humanity. The titles of many of his paintings are as archetypal as the characters that inhabit them: “The Artist,” The Farmer” and “The Father,” for example. The workers in “Fields,” faces shielded by their broad-brimmed hats, represent every man and woman who has plowed and hoed, gathered and picked, their back-breaking labor stripping bare the land and, perhaps, their souls. Yet Downs also portrays them as real people bent to their tasks, surviving their lives with dignity and grace. (more…)
