I notice, in his paintings there is inevitably a sense of place; the works are documents about that time when they were made; one witnesses the structures, the feeling of being on the riverbed, he bemuses the homeless people living there by setting up his instruments for recording the moment: Sumi ink, water color paper. On the side of his drawing board he attaches a 'Camera lucida,' a drawing aid from the past; its vulnerability and apparent redundancy keep him in touch with the process of making the work. This visualizing aid consists of a telescopic rod to which one can attach lenses of different focal lengths; by placing one's eye close to the glass, a prism effect reveals the subject as well as the image on paper. David explains that, apart from helping him locate key points in the drawing, it also allows the process to become the subject.

He spends a lot of time looking and drawing sitting on the mostly dry riverbed; passages are carefully rendered, utilizing his skills of modeling and perspective laws. Absorbing the atmosphere, he is also just as likely to abandon precise description, bringing the viewer directly back to the very nature of applied pigment; then raw paint and deft drawing seemingly flick between the moment painted and now.

Watching him work, I see this concept continues in his studio, when the large blank canvas is segmented and the field drawing is transcribed; then the paintings move further from being depictions of the river and its bridges, gaining their own significance and temperature. This development is a dialogue between the viewer, other artists' works, and   awareness of the media and techniques used in the making of the image.

It was a great pleasure to visit David's contemporary studio and watch as he worked.

LA River Bridges

Better to build bridges than walls, or battleships, my attention turned to the LA river downtown, for most of the year a green ribbon of recycled water.

One bridge in particular, the Macy Street Bridge, became my model. The grandiose aspirations and sadly displaced persons of LA, random metaphors for dominance and progress, are here on my doorstep.

In these bridges, alongside industrial engineering and steel spans, there are glimpses of Versailles and ancient Rome - an illusion, enhanced by the destitute. It is easy to imagine oneself partaking in the middle-distance adventures of a Piranesi etching. I love LA moments like these. Allowing the neo-baroque bridges to play upon my mind, haunted by the dark underbelly of their structures, their curves within curves reminding me of Leibniz's "folds in the soul." My obsessions continue in this baroque world, which I gravitate to drawing, photographing, just viewing.

Although ultimately, painting itself is the subject: the interwoven trellises, striations, a matrix in uneven translucencies; from within, there is no need for a window since I am still outside.