Hawaiian Maiden
Oil and Musicsheet, 9" x 12"

The House Series

"I started sculpting with clay slabs in the early 1980’s. I created a simple house shape, about the size of a small TV, with human silhouettes cut through the walls. The panels depict a couple struggling to hold up the roof and two figures playing chess. It collapsed three times before I could get it to the kiln and then blew to piece during the firing. Its working title was “Don’t Give up” I tried again in bronze. The result was “House of Effort.” "

Somnath Temple Door
Watercolor and Paper, 11" x 14"

David Delany
Drawings from India, Music Series, and House Series
Reception Saturday August 25th, 2007 from 1-3:30pm
Exhibit through Thursday, October 4th, 2007

The Music Series

These oil studies of Musicians, Landscapes and Women are all painted on antique music sheets. Each music sheet has been sealed with transparent acrylic to preserve and protect it before painting was begun. These small paintings have led to larger works on canvas, such as The Harlequin with Ukulele, Swing Guitar and Bass.

“In 2001, after India, I pursued a degree in Landscape Design and confined my artistic production to the filling of dozens of black sketch books with drawings. I chose to develop the best of these as oil studies on antique music sheets. These I had found years before in an old chest abandoned by a neighbor. That chest also contained a very interesting album of photographs taken by a radio operator, on a trip around the world in 1927.

I sealed the music sheet in transparent acrylic to preserve and protect them before the drawings were transfered and the painting begun. These studies led to larger works on canvas, such as The Harlequin with Ukulele, Swing Guitar and Bass.”

House of Concern (detail)

The India Series

India is a vibrant, sensual experience resounding with drums and perfumed with incense; the spectacle and drama of the constant progression of pilgrims.  

“In 2000 I went to India. My intention was to study Adveita Vedanta with a renowned teacher, a Swami Dayananada. I passed six months in that steaming cauldron of humanity studying and drawing obsessively. With line and color I attempted to interpret and buffer the beauty and poverty of daily life with decidedly mixed results. Much of my day was spent in a classroom. Consequently, quite a few of these drawings are portraits of the teacher circled with a ribbon of my cryptic notes from the lecture. When not in class, I recorded scenes of rural India, places, people and animals. It was never dull. India is a marvelous show and the curtain never falls. If my art conveys even a small part of the drama, beauty and humanity that I encountered I consider it a great success! In 2006 I returned to India and stayed with a local family in Delhi. I took the train to Orissa where I made many drawings in and around the fishing village of Puri.”