David Constable... Blek

Visiting artist, David Constable received his BA in Fine Art from Grays School of Art, in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1989. After graduating, he immediately went into construction work with his father. For several year he worked in construction, while thirsting after a career etc. in art. Several years later, he went back to school for his Masters of Fine Art from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois where he met his wife. He lives in Norton, Virginia, with his wife and daughter and is an Adjunct instructor at the University of Virginia's College at Wise.

Constable’s approach to his talk was focused on his history. He discussed in great detail the history of his life and behind his works. In some cases it shed great light on rationale behind his work but this was not so in every case. Some of his paintings and drawings depicted the bleakness of the land where he now lives, and that bleakness he connected to his time in construction in Scotland. He now lives near coal mines and expressed that that has had a major impact on his work. He has been impressed by how the land is so torn up and the landscape appears grayer because of the work the miners do below the surface.

Another of his works that Constable discussed in depth was his study in architecture. The Chemistry department at the college was moving their files to digital and getting rid of dozens upon dozens of large tomes. Constable requested to receive all of them and once he had, made a sculpture out of them. He talked about how he had to remove pages from some of the books in order to have an even and level top to his sculpture. He experimented at first, building a castle for his daughter and scattering the books around in random columns, before deciding that he was going to make a wall. He stacked the books in a long horizontal wall-like structure.

One thing that greatly annoyed me about this artist was his attitude. I did not feel that his work warranted the attitude that he had concerning it. He was very cocky and, after showing badly exposed photographic prints, claimed that he meant to send a message about the deteriorating landscape. None of the work that he showed during the talk made me think of a medium in a different way nor did it impress me. I may have been more open to his work had he not seemed so arrogant, but since I did not have this chance, I do not have a high opinion of him as an artist. His work seemed rather unoriginal, especially in comparison to the artist, Mirta Kupferminc, who spoke later in the week.