WHO IS DAVE CURTIS?
"Argus" by David E. Curtis
Click on Argus to see it spring into action
|
Dave Curtis, a native of Washington, D.C., the artist has called the Falls Church area of Northern Virginia home for over six decades. He earned a B.A. in Studio Art from Virginia Tech and has exhibited extensively throughout the East Coast in both group and solo shows. Today, Curtis maintains a public studio at Jefferson Street Artists within Art and Frame of Falls Church, where visitors can engage directly with his creative process.
|
Dave gets political with "Trumpadelic Delusions: The Flying Pig Series"
|
|
|
A flash back to 2018 an important year artistically for Dave
Between 2017 and 2018 Dave Curtis was thrust into his art in a way unlike ever before. This was due to a traumatic divorce from his wife Sabrina. During this time he created his first epic series having to do with Climate Change. Interestingly this theme while seemingly about the environment also has other meanings, one being his "epic" style divorce that didn't make it in the local Washington D.C. news although it played out like a hollywood drama.
Fellow artist, art collector and fan of Curtis' work David F. Heatwole felt that this series dubbed "Sir Real and the Aquarium", or the "Aquarium Series" for short, was a very important pivot in Curtis' art career and that it should be written about and preserved for future art historians and art lovers. As he embarked on this task he was inspired to publish Dave's first book, a children's style board book, with accompanying words penned at the request of Heatwole. He also designed and had manufactured all the packaging for a limited-edition print set of the series of 12 paintings. What came next were two series of 3-D printed plastic characters and scenes from a few of these new paintings. Following all this and more merchandise and apparel Heatwole then had to create another book to tell Dave's story and the history behind this series the final outcome was a memoir of sorts title's "A Dive into Sir Real's Aquarium" which focuses on the relationship between the two Davids and what was happening in both of their lives during the time of Dave's divorce. As Heatwole was putting the final touches on this memoir crazy things had been happening in his life that he felt was important to share as it tied to his relationship with Curtis so he looked back through his life to then write what is considered Part 1/Book 1 of multi-book memoir it is titled "Transcending Coincidence."
Fellow artist, art collector and fan of Curtis' work David F. Heatwole felt that this series dubbed "Sir Real and the Aquarium", or the "Aquarium Series" for short, was a very important pivot in Curtis' art career and that it should be written about and preserved for future art historians and art lovers. As he embarked on this task he was inspired to publish Dave's first book, a children's style board book, with accompanying words penned at the request of Heatwole. He also designed and had manufactured all the packaging for a limited-edition print set of the series of 12 paintings. What came next were two series of 3-D printed plastic characters and scenes from a few of these new paintings. Following all this and more merchandise and apparel Heatwole then had to create another book to tell Dave's story and the history behind this series the final outcome was a memoir of sorts title's "A Dive into Sir Real's Aquarium" which focuses on the relationship between the two Davids and what was happening in both of their lives during the time of Dave's divorce. As Heatwole was putting the final touches on this memoir crazy things had been happening in his life that he felt was important to share as it tied to his relationship with Curtis so he looked back through his life to then write what is considered Part 1/Book 1 of multi-book memoir it is titled "Transcending Coincidence."
|
|
In this video Dave shares incite into the painting titled "Birth of the Gods" which was the piece leading up to the epic series "Sir Real and the Aquarium."
|
Dali made another appearance in Dave's work in 2023
As soon as Dali made another appearance in Curtis' work in 2023 one painting from 2019 made a disappearance.
Feb 21, 2023 Instagram Post from Dave Curtis:
Stolen: "Sea of Dali". Once again a fan has flattered me in letting me know that possessing one of my paintings is worth committing a felony! In 2019 Dave began exploring how he could paint in his own surreal manner portraits of the master surrealist Salvador Dali. "Sea of Dali" was his first of over half a dozen paintings. Notice how it changed from the photo taken by the artist's colleague David Heatwole shown on the right |
|
Dave Curtis was commissioned by Robert Sheridan to produce a painting for the "Battle Off Samar." This was a battle during WWII in which the Japanese used different colored dye shells to differentiate of which ship was shooting when. The Yamato was red and the Kongo was green to name a few of the ships. There are 27 ships in the painting in a battle that takes place over a period of several hours. The painting was finished in 1990 and was donated to the USS Yorktown(which served in Viet Nam), which is a floating Naval History museum docked at Patriot's Point in Charleston, South Carolina. There is a direct quote from a sailor during the Battle Off Samar, "The Japanese are shooting at us in technicolor!" The painting was later donated by Rutledge Sheridan to the USS Yorktown.
|
The painting was commissioned by Robert Sheridan in the late 1980's, and was completed by Curtis in 1990. In addition to donating this masterpiece Sheridan also donated his whole Naval History library to the USS Yorktown. Both the library and the painting are on the USS Yorktown which is docked at Patriot's Point in South Carolina.
click on the link below to learn more about the ship and the battle.
|
"Battle off Samar" by David E. Curtis 1990
|
"Symphony in Green" by David E. Curtis 2006"
|
This painting was commissioned by Jesse Greer of the Vietnam Unit The Magnificent Bastards. The Magnificent Bastards is the 2nd Batallion 4th Marine Division that served during Vietnam. Jesse Greer commissioned Dave to produce this painting for his CD in 2006.
|
Updated 11/5/2023
