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David M Bowman - Artist's Statement - May 2006

I have worked in metal for more than thirty-five years, starting with silver jewelry and working my way up in size through belt buckles, candlesticks and vases to abstract wallpieces in patinaed brass. I am largely self-taught as a metalworker, learning from books, a few classes, and mostly from working on my own pieces in the studio.

In the early 1980s I developed my own idiosyncratic method of fabricating vases from heavy sheet brass. After a few years of building polished brass vases I began learning about sculptural patinas. I have spent the years since then experimenting with many patina recipes and combining them for different effects. Since discovering their potential, I have worked with patinas almost exclusively as the surface treatment for my work.

In 1990 I worked out a technique that allowed me to build wallpieces composed from many parts, to juxtapose many patinas next to one another. In the years since then my son, Reed, has worked with me and together we have refined the process considerably. Currently I design most of our wallpieces and work on surface texturing, and he does most of the engineering, assembly, and patination, occasionally designing and building his own pieces. We have sold nearly five hundred wallpieces, both through galleries and on commission, in the sixteen years we have been making them.

My sense of form and composition comes from long and close study of natural forms, architecture from all periods, and the work of other contemporary and ancient artisans.

My work with wallpieces particularly reflects my interest in achieving balance in asymmetrical forms. I enjoy the challenge of working with our simple tools and limited palette of patinas and surface textures.

Education and Background:

• Born La Porte, Indiana
• Raised in southern Florida
• Attended Williams College in Massachussetts and
• University of Michigan - B.S. Aerospace Engineering 1969
• Studied jewelry making in a night school class in Ann Arbor.
• Moved to Berkeley, California 1975