David Culbertson was born in 1969 in Eureka, Kansas. Completely self-taught, he has been painting since 1998.He has always loved the artwork and the space of the Southwest and moved to Santa Fe, N.M. in May 2010 to further his interests in the culture and art.
From idea to tangible form, I love to create original artwork that engages the viewer. I work in acrylic on canvas and panel using various tools to create my paintings: blow dryers, plastic wrap, fiber netting, paper towels, palette knives, toothpicks, pvc pipe, gloss medium, metallic pigment flakes, and modeling paste. Ideas or themes come out in the process of developing the artwork.
Rarely do I have the complete piece in my mind’s eye. My current works are three dimensional masks that are based on a standard plastic face mold that I then distort over a flame or cut with a blade to get the desired design.
Most of my artwork is completed within a week, sometimes even one or two days.
I am always interested in the viewer’s reactions to my works, wondering what story they would tell. In the end it is all about connections, the touching of another through visual means and hopefully creating in them a feeling or resonance. That is what I want my artwork to do, to make ripples in the worlds of others and add to their lives and views in small artistic ways.
My works are in private collections around the world.
