David Sheldon is a multi-disciplined artists whose work has evolved over the years as a painter and sculptor. He received his BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1984. His thesis show for his MFA in 1990 at the University of Maryland incorporated large scale mixed media paintings as well as sculptural works. David lives and works in Ashville North Carolina. David’s four sculptures, “Buffalo Creek Quartet” will frame the entrance to our new pergola in our sculpture park.

“After seeing the beautiful sculptural works being created at Buffalo Creek Art Center, and the spectacular setting of the sculpture park, I was very interested in taking up a residency and creating a sculptural work especially for the park. Recently, I have been doing some smaller scale sculpture pieces that explore my attempts at what I like to call ‘pure creation’, simply allowing the process of working with steel in three dimensions to be a direct, spontaneous, improvisational process without too many preconceived ideas to start with. I have a number of sculptural forms, a kind of language of form, I’ve developed over the years of working, that I like to begin with. But, a majority of the process is strictly intuitive, playing off shapes, both positive and negative, that begin to create what I like to think of as ‘spatial music’. I have been told that the piece that resulted, “Buffalo Creek Quartet”, has a wonderfully dynamic, uplifting feeling, which pleases me very much. I applied a golden patina of rust to the surfaces, allowing the steel to naturally weather, with flowing rivers of rust , complementing the dry rivulets and rough terrain of the Sierra Mountains encircling them. I was given a lot of flexibility and freedom during my stay at BCAC, which allowed me to really fly with my creativity and take my sculpture to a new level. It was wonderful to have the back and forth of exchange with my fellow sculptors, and I would encourage any sculptors interested in such an opportunity to apply.”

– David Sheldon