David French

Tres Hombres, 2016, oil on linen, 30"x 30"
How did you get into debt?
In 2000 I was diagnosed with cancer. I took on medical expenses as a unwanted part of my recovery process. I also experienced a year of not being able to physically work, followed by an unexpected divorce, and a loss of employment. My credit card dept skyrocketed at this time and what ever equity I built to date was liquidated.
Racers, 2016, oil on linen, 20"x 20"
How does your economic reality effect your art?
Besides material costs affecting size, numbers and over all look of individual works and bodies of works, my time is limited in the studio because of daily responsibilities. Because of this economic time restriction, making artwork has become a fairly rapid, immediate and reactive activity. Prior to a studio session, i consider what i will do once i get there. I marry preconceived theoretical intentions with the pleasurable and exciting experience of manipulating paint.
I am most interested in staging a celebratory and investigative relationship between the most essential parts of Painting and me the artist, agent. The essential painters’ toolbox consists of the flat surface, red, yellow, blue and white. I think of my interaction with these basic materials as a collaborator. I equate my action to those tool box components, everything contributes proportionally. These conceptual underpinnings have been arrived upon through my economic reality of affording what is most critical to function.
Primrose140ml, 2015, oil on linen, 30"x 30"
Would your work look different if you weren't in debt?:
That is an interesting question. So much of the content in my work is because of my economic status and a related anxieties. I believe my artwork has been affected by my economic state. For better and for worse, my "reality" has forced me to make certain decisions in the studio, to take certain positions too. There is no doubt being depth free, would shift my content. I believe exploration in scale, volume and mixed media as well as sculpture would be considered at that point.

Purple Product, 2016, oil on twill linen, 60"x60"
www.davidfrenchfineart.com