David Garnand: Artist's Statement

My dad always had a camera with him when we traveled, and we traveled a lot. He loved taking scenic pictures, vistas, beautiful nature scenes. When he gave me his Kodak Instamatic I looked through the viewfinder and saw a whole new world. Even in my earliest pictures I was trying to remove as much context as possible. I wanted to focus in on shapes and patterns, textures, color, and light.

It starts with the light. The light has to be just right. Then I need something for the light to hit. Water is a favorite subject of mine and seems to manifest beauty in infinite ways. The two basic reactions to my photography are, “What is that a picture of?” and, “[audible sigh] Wow.” Many people first look to see what it is; they are following our habit of categorizing and putting what we encounter into boxes. I seek to make art that leaves you without your normal frames of reference, giving you opportunity to simply be in the moment of awe, in the moment of beauty.

My drawings are born out of a marriage between the abstract visual images of my photography and my love of architectural drawings. Again I am making shape and form, line and color, not to represent any specific physical object, but to capture just the essence of proportion, balance, and form that feels pleasing, interesting, or inexpressibly meaningful.

Art is a form of communication, a visual literature. I believe what we yearn for in music, poetry, and relationships is beauty. I love beauty; deep, rich, inexpressible beauty.