statement

This drawing is currently traveling in an exhibition titled The Quickening Image: Wax-Resist Drawings of David Lewis and Ephraim Rubenstein. I developed the wax-resist drawing process in graduate school, and it has been one of my primary means of expression since. The process was the subject of an extensive article in American Artist Drawing magazine in 2005, and a similar article will appear in the same periodical this summer as a result of the traveling exhibition.

My images are usually metaphorical, being ordinary objects put in a context that suggests other interpretations. Given that the design and intended use of a maul involves splitting wood, depicting two maul heads on shattered shafts, as in Splitting Maul #8, implies a visual irony. I also enjoy exploiting the many textural effects possible in this process as well as making associations with the history of art (in this case, for example, with the labrys or double bitted axe of ancient Crete).

bio

born: 1951, Houlton, Maine

education

East Carolina University, MFA, 1987
East Carolina University, 1981
University of Southern Maine, BS summa cum laude high honors in art, 1974

selected awards/honors

Best in Show, Virginia Artists 2013, Charles H. Taylor Arts Center, Hampton, Virginia, 2013
Named the Barger-Barclay Professor of Fine Arts, Hampden-Sydney College, 2012
John Peter Mettauer Award for Excellence in Research (Exhibitions), Hampden-Sydney College, 2006

selected publications

American Artist Drawing Magazine, The Quickening Image, summer issue, 2015
Diversions, Hampton (Virgina) Arts, July/August/September, 2014

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Washington County Museum of Art, The Quickening Image: Wax-Resist Drawings of David Lewis and Ephraim Rubenstein, Hagerstown, Maryland, 2015
Charles H. Taylor Arts Center, Faces and Fossils: Paintings by David Dodge Lewis, Hampton, Virginia, 2014
Chroma Projects, Darwin's Sanctum (solo exhibition), Charlottesville, Virginia, 2010

selected group shows

Maurine Littleton Gallery, Body/Building, Washington, District of Columbia, 2014
Northwest Art Center, Americans 2014: All Media, Minot State, University, Minot, North Dakota, 2014
Muscarelle Museum of Art, In Tandem: Established and Emerging Contemporary Artists from the Permanent Collecetion,The College of William & Mary, 2013
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Exhibitied Finalist, Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009, Washington, District of Columbia, 2009