bio and artist statement:

Born David M. Brown in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1976 but raised mainly in Portland, Oregon. Dave is a recent transplant to San Diego, arriving in 2003 a new husband to artist A.K. Miles.

Dave has been called a "thinking mans' artist" by some peers, and it shows in his delightfully provocative (sometimes sardonic) compositions. A lover of science and critical thought, these ideas are promoted through a kind of "paranoiac reasoning" used by surrealists. It is his ambition to raise the consciousness of the viewer and eschew superstitions with art.
He is a proud self taught artist and father of two children. I learned from twenty years of errors and from books at the local library. Books are a major influence in my art; from their covers to the juicy stuff inside. I love to use old master techniques in a modern platform.

"I
paint large paintings with big ideas on small canvases."

I want to bring the viewer up to the "intellect" of the painting rather then "dumb" the painting down. That is the only way the viewer can take anything from it. Content is paramount.

" I think we give television the attention art deserves."

I compose my paintings with interconnection, pulling related/unrelated themes objectively from their context. This alters (and enforces) the underlying meaning of the painting, having them read like hieroglyphs. I believe it's this kind of connect-the-dots that speaks to the subconscious. When someone leaves the theater, they may only remember pieces that connected them to the story. Technique & critical reasoning is where I draw my inspiration.

My main artistic influences are(today): A.K. Miles, Josef Albers, Chuck Close, Philip Taafe, Ed Paschke, Eric White, Neo Rauch, Odd Nerdrum, Jim Steranko, Max Ernst, Henry Matisse, Thomas Eakins, Gustav Courbet, Giambattista Tiepolo, Peter Paul Rubens, and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.