[a short bio ]

Originally from Virginia, David Carmack Lewis studied illustration at Virginia Commonwealth University and in Cardiff, Wales. He started painting after moving to Phoenix, Arizona in the early '90s. There he became an early member of the now defunct but well known House Studios and showed his work in Scottsdale, Arizona at Art One Gallery. He moved to Namibia in early 1999 and while there, showed work in the Hout Bay Gallery near Cape Town, South Africa. He moved to Portland in 2000. Since then, the mood and atmosphere of the pacific northwest has had a tremendous impact on his work. He currently shows at the Attic Gallery in downtown Portland and has participated in juried and curated exhibitions across the region and the country.

[the work]

David Carmack Lewis' recent paintings are about the night and, frequently, small human efforts to hold it at bay. He employs a colorful palette portraying varied lights that vie with each other and the darkness for dominance. But there is a lot more going on here than simply depicting locations and light. From the beginning his work has been narrative in nature. While the figures of his early paintings have disappeared, they seem to be only in hiding, as if they might have stepped offstage only a moment ago. The scene itself then takes up the narrative role and the comparison to a stage set is somewhat apt. There is a dramatic tone to the work, as if some curious event has either just occured or is imminent. The use of night heightens the sense of drama and creates out of it a kind of mystery. In addition he often uses an elevated perspective, so that the viewer feels slightly detached, floating just above the scene, cooly examining it for possible clues. There is also, undoubtedly, a sense of loneliness to these nocturnal milieus. But one does not perceive that the artist is struggling with a sense of isolation or melancholy. Rather he seems to be embracing it, perhaps needing it, and at the same time, offering it to the viewer as a balm against the hectic struggle of our daily lives.

[Artist's Statement]

I tell stories. They may not have beginnings or endings, but they are stories none the less. Like the stories told in medieval paintings, they are not about plot. They are about the resonance that the described event has for the contemplative viewer. But the events described in my own work are generally just out of view. Something is about to happen. Or perhaps it happened a moment ago. I imply something out of the ordinary in the midst of ordinary circumstances. It is a reminder to look around with different eyes, as if mysteries and revelations might reveal themselves at any moment, emerging suddenly from the woods or out of an empty alleyway.

My visual style was once influenced by medieval imagery as well. The bold lines of early woodcuts, the colors of stained glass and the oddly stylized manner of the figures were all elements I emulated. That visual comparison is gone. My style has evolved in the service of the kind of stories I wanted to paint. The bold lines grew into deep shadows, until the shadows engulfed everything and night fell in my work. A few years ago the figures also mysteriously vanished, although the human presence remains tantalizingly close. They seem to have stepped out of the frame or pulled the blind only a moment ago. And the colors, which once were meant to capture the fractured light of day, now portray a world of darkness, only partially and imperfectly revealed by light.

And fire.

I love fires. And it is in the dark, huddled around the rather dim and flickering light of a fire, that stories were first told.

David Carmack Lewis
October, 2009