Artist’s Bio
David Souza is a visual artist living in Tacoma, WA who explores dreams and the subconscious through symoblism and nature. His drawings and paintings are moments caught in time, a surreal glimpse of a dream-like world that reflects our own. His work challenges the viewer to explore broader topics and to reflect on their impact on the self.
Enamoured by illustrations David found in children's books, he began making art before school age. Inspired by television, movies, trading card and video games, he continued making art in high school where he was often found in the art block helping the drawing and painting teachers. He began to refine his skills in college after taking some basic art courses, and further explored and develop his work in private until he was well into his 30's. Their graphic style also highlights David's roots as a comic book and graphic novel enthusiast. Alphonse Mucha, Brian Froud, Stephen Gammel, Tim Burton, and Yoshitaka Amano remain some of his earliest and most influential sources of early inspiration as well.
David's body of work is connected by themes of dream logic and a feeling of surreal or absurd. His more recent work combines varying linework and watercolor to enhance this effect, taking advantage of organic, flowing compositions to create a sense of motion. His work has been shown locally and online in both solo and group shows. He has been featured in a magazine article, donated his work for charity, can be found working a booth at local markets, and most recently attended a three week residency in the Champage region of France.
Having recently overcome cancer, David feels he was put here for this purpose and wants to share what he has learned about himself and the world. He currently teaches local workshops and classes where he enjoys showing beginners how to engage with and develop love for the arts. His belief that there is a style of art that resonates with everyone shows in his enthusiasm for many different media and his insistence that art is in everything we make.
Artist’s Statement
My work explores the subconscious world, the meanings and symbolism of dreams, and evoking a sense of the surreal. Through the combination of dream logic, nature, and man-made constructs, my work describes the impact of modern life on the human psyche, particularly highlighting the urge to return to simpler ways of living. It explores the line where technology meets the natural world and what it represents for how humanity relates to itself. Our separation from nature often causes a similar level of separation within ourselves, and creates an almost absurd reality where neither nature, nor man-made creations seem real anymore.
A current series describes my journey with cancer: becoming ill, tests and diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. The work is dark and graphic, mostly expressing the physical torture of the treatment as well as of the illness itself. While enduring chemotherapy even basic tasks became extremely challenging to complete and the needs of living alone often felt overwhelming. The judgment that one receives from those close to them during this period is a hidden burden that most struggle to understand as well and further isolates a patient. The process of surviving cancer involves far more than simply surviving the treatment and is a concept which this series explores in-depth.
My color palette is heavily inspired by growing up in the Pacific Northwest and leans heavily toward cooler hues. Cerulean, indigo, sepia, and payne's gray mix in interesting and subtle ways that creates evocative combinations. These help inspire that feeling of everything being just a little far away, which is a quality that dreams also have. I work predominantly in watercolor because of its capacity for layering and organically blending color, allowing me to create the dream-like effect depending on how much of the paper I choose to allow to show through. Through the use of organic, flowing compositions, varying line weights, and utilizing negative space, I can create a sense of the otherworldly. By combining stippling, hatching, and brushwork I can create a very graphic style that allows me to portray some of the grittier aspects of my pieces. When used together with watercolor I have a very flexible toolset that allows me to convey many different types of feelings and moods that can range from raw frustration to whimsical curiosity.
The work I make is my attempt to reveal a more human reality than an objective one. I strive to provide insight that evokes either wonder, horror, or laughter; preferably all three at once. I rely heavily on the symbolism found in dreams and the subconscious mind to create a surreal interpretation of a moment, thought, or feeling. I believe that the part of our minds that is in tune with the natural world speaks to us through dreams and that by adopting a dream-like style I can also convey those truths. By mixing media and rendering techniques I can create an interpretive world where dream logic makes more sense than the waking world does.
