David Seth Brass
Biography

David Brass brings stone to life. Walking through the gallery (solo exhibition) in December was an act of walking through David's own passionate imagination - an imagination filled with unique, stylized creatures from the natural world and our human one, honoring the sacred elements of those two realms. In the mid 1990's David's childhood passion for natural materials and figurative studies converged as he taught himself to sculpt in stone. His sculpture moves the observer emotionally, and it almost seems to move itself physically, as a result of David's intimate collaboration with the stone's texture and color.

Originally from Oyster Bay, New York, David traveled across the United States with his family during his early childhood years, and he credits that time in his life for cultivating his interest in and appreciation of the natural world. His family moved to Salida, Colorado, when David was 9, and his love of the outdoors blossomed. At college in Gunnison, he studied mammalogy (the branch of zoology that studies mammals) and osteology (the study of the structure and function of bones) and eventually did some work for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. In Alaska he reconstructed animal forms using their bones and assisted in the Fish and Game Department's education programs. David developed skill at creating a body out of inanimate material, although he would contend that the bones he used then and the stone he uses now are far from inanimate, that if you pay attention, you can discover the life and spirit within them.

David now lives near Pine Junction with Karen - his wife, champion and muse - and their two children, Shannah and Adam. Their secluded home faces magnificent Colorado peaks and outcroppings, including one known as Lion's Head. This is also the name that David chose for his studio, where two 100-year-old iron lion heads greet visitors just outside the door. He believes strongly that the place he lives and the natural beauty that surrounds him deeply affect his work. Four large windows on one side of the studio actually creates the feeling of being outside, standing on earth rather than wood, breathing the mountain breeze, not the air that is carefully filtered to protect the lungs of a stone sculptor.

"When I am working, I have the sense that I am being cradled by the beauty around me. I am not separate from the outdoors. Elk stroll past me as I work, and three generations of foxes have been born on our property. I've surrounded myself with the things that I love."

David's distinct, direct carving style is recognized for the interrelationships between fluid lines and shapes, manipulation of color and texture and the strength portrayed through each work. He enjoys discovering animal and human forms within the stone and intuiting how best to unearth them. Some of his pieces are almost completely smoothed and shining; others combine that refinement with elements of rough and raw stone. The subjects are clear in each piece, but their form is always abstract, offering people a chance to make their own interpretations and see the pieces through the lens of their own personal experiences and feelings. It is an enormous gift for an artist to be able to live in a community that profoundly enjoys his work, something that David recognizes and appreciates. "I think that people who are drawn to the mountains are drawn to beauty," he says. "People around here choose their homes and surroundings to express the things that are important to them..."

David has a strong sense of responsibility to the people who buy his art, whether they live in Evergreen, across the country or overseas. "Buying a piece of art is not only an investment in the piece itself," he says, "but in the artist. It's important for the buyers of art to trust that I am going to continue creating for the course of my life and that my reputation will continue to grow along with the value of my work. And of course, it is important that they find a piece that they fall in love with. One always hopes for that." David notes that his relationships with people who buy his sculptures are continuous ones. "An artist doesn't want to sell a piece of art to someone and then never have contact with them again. I enjoy the relationships created with each person who has ever bought a stone sculpture from me. I foster those relationships."

Like so many people who have found their calling and delight in it, David feels a need to give back to the community. "I ... believe that the charitable gifts that I make on behalf of the people who purchase my art is an important way to honor them." He recently supervised the design and creation of a large granite sign for the new Temple Beth Evergreen, and the Brass family is counted among those who donated funds to the project.

Special commissions by individuals or families are another way that David connects with people through art. He enjoys the process of working with people to create sculptures that are important and meaningful parts of their lives. "Recently I worked with the family of a fellow sculptor who passed away," David says, "his family in Romania, Brazil, and in the U.S. asked me to create a memorial for him, one that would incorporate elements of his life as well as my own concepts. I imported a one-ton piece of granite from India, and the piece eventually included, among other things, my images of a violin (an important and wonderful part of this artist's life), a hand holding a chisel and grape vines that I incorporated from one of his own works. That was a piece I completed recently that was really important to me."

(During the course of David and Karen's travels around the world, David always searches for stone)... David finds the act of discovering the material and bringing it home to Colorado to be an important part of the creative process. When he talks about bringing home Parian marble from the Paros Island quarry - the same quarry that produced the stone for the Venus de Milo - David's eyes shine with excitement and reverence. "The sense of place within the stone, its history {these} are powerful forces for me. When I went to Greece and put my hands on the marble columns of the Parthenon, created thousands of years ago, I felt the hands of the artisans and craftsmen who created those columns. Working with ancient materials helps my ability to tell a story in my sculptures." Some of those stories are about the hidden lives of animals; some are based in history and mythology; others express universal ideas of love, interconnectedness and motherhood. "Telling the story of my wife's experience becoming a mother to my daughter Shannah was very powerful for me. I think - I hope - that these stories are meaningful for others and that those I complete commissions for feel that same power in their own personal sculptures."

In the early years of his artistic career, David won numerous awards in regional art exhibitions in the Midwest. In 2003 he was accepted into the prestigious Colorado Art Open Exhibition at the Foothills Art Center, Juried by Denver Art Museum curator Ann Daley and philanthropist/collector Jan Mayer, who is responsible for the Mayer Collection in the Denver Art Museum. He was also chosen as one of 20 stone sculptors from the United States and Canada to participate in an all-stone exhibition held at Denver's Colorado History Museum this past summer. In 2002 David was one of 54 artists whose works were chosen for the North American Sculpture Exhibition, and he received the Jeff Bradley Memorial Award from internationally renowned sculptor Donald Lipski.

David has enjoyed teaching people the technique of direct stone sculpting and helping them discover their own vision and voice as they work with this material. He says he found his true calling over time, by following his instincts and trusting in the things that inspired him - the splendor and strength of all life forms, the magic he saw in stone as a young child and the majesty of the natural world that has become an integral part of who he is. His creations, from the child enveloped by a mother's protective arms to the gentle arc of a bear's back, make clear that David Brass understands and celebrates the tenderness in all life, a quality that is so often missed, misunderstood or simply ignored. How lucky we are to have his elegant reminders in our midst.