Walters’ message is not one of mere indictment; rather it is a salve against desensitization, connecting us to our humanity ....
Dance of the Shmoos, The taller Shmoo is 22” tall by 9” wide and the shorter is 10” tall by 9” wide.
June 2024: David Walters recently finished a a week long residency at Rombachs Glass in Antwerp working with recycled glass. The studio uses waste glass, works with bio-propane, and utilizes rainwater in order to work in a sustainable and ecological manner. If you've followed his creative path, you know he's been a longtime proponent of environmental, climate, social and political awareness, and uses both his actions and pictures to express his concerns and care... so this is no surprise that the opportunity to work with recycled glass is of interest to him.
David’s technically proficient work focuses on a narrative. Referring often to the tales of our youth, he weaves into the stories a more personal interpretation in an allegorical and metaphorical style, while integrating blown form and image toward a common theme. Dave finds ways to represent what is either good or troubling in our society - while he hopes for the best - by exposing it through his creative illustrations and narratives. Whether the images are graceful, myopic, exaggerated, burning, grinning or scowling, there is always a point, a story. IF you remember or know about the Shmoos, you know they were from a comic strip by Al Capp, and the Shmoo was a character in Lil’ Abner, which gave all good things for people. Giving people all they wanted may sound wonderful, they gave friendship, were super nice, provided milk, or eggs, or even themselves, and were supposedly delicious! However, when we can get anything we want, there are always consequences - and ultimately it is not so good for everyone. These two happy characters have messages about oil, and on the big Shmoos belly is a “window” into the inside of a giant oil cistern with planes swarming, the oil falling from above while a thirsty car sips from the river of oil. The small Shmoo has an oil field inside his mouth.
hrough the Looking Glass, 2021, 10 x 10 x 15"
Sometimes the message takes contemplation, just as Walters’ process takes a great deal of time and thoughtfulness - he spends weeks stippling dots of enamel with a crow quill pen onto the pristine glass surfaces that he blew in the hotshop. Walters begins by blowing a milky white glass into serpentine vessels — distorted eggs at times festooned with hats, hyperbolic pitchers and vases, toy cars, and other fantastic shapes. They become the canvas for his minimally-colored, exquisitely-rendered drawings.
The above sculpture shows the Humpty figure looking into a mirror, with an oncoming MAGA truck barreling out of a tunnel - that exact truck is the one that hit him broadside on the drivers side in Australia at 60 mph, so this one is very personal...
Calama-tea, Love Me or Hate Me, 2009, 27 x 9 x 10"
He's worked mostly with themes from fairy tales and children’s stories, primarily for their familiar and often sentimental associations. He incorporates into these cautionary tales a sense of his own history or personal experience in an effort to give them a more contemporary and intimate relevance.
David's work creates a deeply personal vocabulary within the framework of the narrative through the parallel and stylized world he imagines. The work is a metaphorical reflection of him-self and the world as he interprets it as told through a visual riddle. There are monsters and heroes among us and within us. Some are funny, some are not. We live in a world of distraction, indifference, neglect, and apathy. Sometimes the darkness of things seems unrelenting. We also live in a world of hope, resilience and renewal. The human spirit is capable of so much more than we sometimes dare to imagine.
The function of art, which most interests David, is its ability to hold up the mirror and be relevant to the era from which it was spawned. This inspires a sense of connectedness to the audience of its generation, as well as a fingerprint for future generations. David wishes to honor the original function of the story telling tradition as a cautionary tool meant to teach, inspire, entertain and maybe even frighten us when necessary.
"The point of the work, which I hope comes across, is that there is a price for all the choices in our lives. The culture of convenience we consign ourselves to, often brings a greater cost than we allow ourselves to believe. It’s an effort to bring some consideration of that for myself as well. I think of my work as an effort to reevaluate or question the things I believe, or struggle with philosophically and in so doing relate to the viewer that struggle in myself and maybe in them as well, or at least stir some sense for the wonder of it all."
David Walters - interview in GLASS
Above, Dave holds one of the elements he blew in Antwerp from the recycled glass. We are looking forward to seeing what he communicates through this experience!