David Spence Bio
David Spence was born in a small coal-mining town in, West Virginia and grew up in Bristol, Virginia. As a child, he played with Plasticine clay and made figures and drawings of the human anatomy. Alter high school, he entered the U.S.C.G. Soon after leaving the military, David moved to New York City, where He gained extensive Artistic knowledge in technique, style, art history, and the art world in general. David was associated with two art galleries on Madison Avenue, and much of his free time was spent studying sculptures, paintings and drawings at the MOMA, the Metropolitan and other near by Museums, and the galleries of Sotheby’s and Christy’s auction houses, which allowed first hand, up close examination of the many world famous artworks, learning artist’s methods in their painting, drawing and sculptures. Soon after arriving in N.Y.C., David made contacts with friends to arrange residence at the old Hotel Chelsea down on 23rd street in the late 1960’s. Those were the times when life was pretty much a revolution in many regards. David had a lust for life and a passion for art which exceled during these periods. In the early 1970’s, David decided after five years in N.Y.C. it was a good time to return to Abingdon, Virginia where he continued making art his business. David later moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he took to working more with marble and wood sculpture again. After refining these skills for those mediums, he moved to Houston, Texas, where he immediately began working in Bronze. Once he’d mastered the bronze casting process, a year later, he opened his own art foundry. Soon after, David begin searching for new ideas and felt that his work needed a new energy, and that passion lead to extensive travels throughout Mexico, in quest for new insight. It was in Mexico where he met the woman who was to become his wife. Soon after, David and his wife, Martha returns to Houston, David felt the time ripe for making more drastic changes in his career. They sold everything for adventures that would take them to many parts of Europe. As soon as the plane landed, they took a cab to the nearest car dealership and bought an older Mercedes Benz and took off throughout Western Europe, and did not stop until settling in the mountains of Tuscany, Italy. His studio was tucked amongst a landscape of vineyards in hills of terraced Olive groves that David found far more agreeable with his own laidback life style, and it’s positive effect on his art. A year later, a baby was on its way, which led them hoping on another trans-Atlantic flight, ending up for a seven year stay in, Mexico. Not long after arriving back on familiar turf, David, again, set up an art foundry to create an even larger assemblage of bronze sculptures, utilizing his expertize and passion for multi-color patina work executed on, well in access of 185 bronzes, all, exhibition ready by the time he sold his studio foundry and returned to to America in the late spring of 1993. David’s desire for challenges widened even more with a new love affair with custom bronze furniture and lighting designs and other related objects. He moved his studio and art foundry operation To Dallas, Texas and turned that into a much larger company. Dallas Fine Arts Foundry, After five years building the fine art casting business and finding it too much of a distraction from his own creations, David moved his family back to Mexico and did short periods there while making trips back to Dallas to finish up projects and ending his involvement with his Dallas art foundry. In January 2002, David received an outdoor commission in Virginia. After he arrived, he realized once his designs were approved, he needed to set up another art foundry to successfully produce his project with in a reasonable time span. By now, David had known Abingdon, Virginia quite well, which is a small town with a population of only 7,800. Once the first commission had been successfully installed, the town continued to commission David to create various outdoor sculptures that kept him settled in for an unbelievable, ten long years, practically unheard of in a medium size city, much less in a small town of this size. Tired and fed up with creating large-scale bronze sculptures, David decided on a long sabbatical. However, as it turns out, one day at a time, it appeared to be evolving into a somewhat permanent move. Soon after, he shut down both his art studio and art foundry in Virginia, deciding a permanent move is what he actually needed. San Antonio is different enough to contemplate new ideas for his art, allowing with his art, a fresh kind of enlightenment to immerged. It was relaxing, just what he had in mind. A new kind of energy in the form of watercolors, that took about a year before falling in place. Suddenly, he knew the only thing he could paint was his own organic forms and shapes that he’d created in his wood and stone sculptures. By placing these elements over structured backgrounds of tri-angles of various colors and hard edge lines, angling themselves in and out and over shapes and circles of elements making up the compositions in his paintings. For many years of exhibitions and showings, David felt frustrated because forced to exhibit with painters, who took the walls, leaving him with sculptures on pedestals spread throughout the gallery floors. Today, his creations of his wood sculptures as wall pieces, drawings and paintings allow for one-man exhibitions. David has separated himself from the business of tight schedules and enjoys creating his art under the umbrella of freedom.
A quotation from David Spence’s sculptural beginnings.
David’s love for sculpture manifested into a career. “My love for wood came when I was age 14 while visiting an older cousin. One evening, I walked into his workspace, he'd classified as his studio. I asked why he was doing sculpture in wood. His answer drew me into his world of thinking. He said he wanted to leave something behind after he dies. I thought that was so profound, but also that he was far too young to die anytime soon”.