Peters, an extraordinary abstract painter, and Warren Criswell, a kind of Renaissance artist using any and all kinds of media to pursue his psychological and metaphysical realism, to name just two.. A friend of mine from Hunter College commented on my choice to leave NY as detrimental to my career and questioned my seriousness as an artist. It is typical to draw a line marking territory but difficult to understand why. I did not enjoy living in NY or Boston. It had nothing to do with my art, but it affected everything about my art. I don’t believe that making art is any easier in one place or another. As to missing out on the chance of fame, fortune, and influence? It’s kind of like waking up every morning and thinking, ‘Today is the day.’ I’ll let you know in fifty years.
22: On that note, can you talk a little about how you ended up in Arkansas? DB: When my wife, Amy Stewart, accepted a clerkship with the Chief Judge of the U.S. District
Court in Little Rock, Arkansas, we figured it was a two-year commitment and then we would move back to the East Coast. While I was concerned about moving to the South, my work was never predicated on a location. It was a fortuitous opportunity that when I applied for a bookkeeper job at the Arkansas Arts Center, I was offered the position of Museum School Director instead. Directing a school with faculty and facilities for pottery, glass blowing, woodworking, jewelry making, photography, printmaking, painting, and drawing was a dream position but, more importantly, it gave me proximity to the Arts Center’s collection of master and contemporary drawings. The Arts Center’s collection was curated and sustained by its director, Townsend Wolfe, from whose connoisseurship I learned a great deal. It was a unique and comprehensive collection by any museum standard, and I had access to its riches for daily study. In the end, Little Rock proved to be a perfect situation. Hillary Clinton and Vince Foster recruited Amy to join the Rose Law Firm, and my work at the Arts Center was the perfect job at the right time in my career, so we decided to stay.
22: Are you currently teaching and, if so, where? What are some of the most important lessons you would suggest for a theater artist or painter/drawer respectively?
DB: I am currently an adjunct professor at Hendrix College and an instructor at the University of
Central Arkansas, both located in Conway, Arkansas. Teaching keeps my mind functioning outside of the studio and requires me to define and articulate the drawing techniques for my students. My lessons for any artist: 1. Don’t make wallpaper 2. Don’t contemplate your navel. 3. Be hungry.
22: What are your current projects or upcoming shows?