Davion Raphael Birdsong
Artist Statement
As an artist I force myself to look at things differently and in as many ways as I possibly can. The art in which I create invites others to bend the way they too look at things and experience the beauty in changing ones own perspective, whether it is intentionally or unintentionally. In the time that we live in everything is so fast paste and people barely have the time to sit back and enjoy things anymore. People are so consumed by things ranging from work to leisure and some never have the time to sit down and relax.
Therefore, my main focus as an artist is to provide an escape for my viewers, take them to a place where nothing else matters anymore, only what is in front of them. What I intend for my viewers to do when seeing and analyzing my work for the first time is to take a moment and actually look at what’s there and even try to put themselves within the space that I have created. At the same time, however, there is an aesthetic appeal to all of my work due in part to my use of color. What I really want people to notice however is all the different emotions that are portrayed through the pieces and I want them to be able to relate with them in some way. In a lot of my work there is a heavy use of abstracted, humanoid characters that all bend and twist in a way that creates one whole character, image or idea. The main idea behind this is to portray the emotions that we all feel day to day and since we are all one as a nation, a society, and a world, what better way to portray that than to jumble them all up in a interesting and intriguing way, creating a sort of "pleasurable discomfort". Some of the characters may be seen smiling, some may seem to be speaking some are in shock, some are angry and others are just lost and confused. To me that’s how things are in the world today we live in; chaotic, confusing but yet and still, human and normal.
Whenever I am around and have a viewer looking at my work and I see him or her walk up to it and the first thing they do is squint their eyes or tilt their head slightly to one side or the other or even smile or frown I know that I have done my job. I have successfully transferred emotion from my work to the individual viewer and to me, that feeling is amazing. I hope that years from now someone will come across my work and understand that the 21st century was one crazy time full of emotion chaos confusion and still somehow, love because there is definitely a bit of love in my work.
Artist’s Resume
Davion Raphael Birdsong
1750 Ashford Court
Harrisonburg, VA 22801
Phone: (434) 378-7195
Fax: (434) 378-9571
[email protected]
www.dbartistic.com
Born: Richmond, VA
Employment
Sawhill Gallery / Duke Gallery
Harrisonburg, VA
Gallery Intern 2013 – Present
Interview Coordinator 2013 – Present
Education
M.F.A. Painting and Printmaking, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. 2015
B.A. History, James Madison University. Harrisonburg, VA. 2015
B.F.A. Painting and Drawing. James Madison University. Harrisonburg, VA. 2015
Professional Associations and Memberships
Kappa Pi