We proudly present our final interview presented in conjunction with our Art Saint Louis virtual gallery
exhibit: "Dreamlife," a multi-media art exhibit is presented
exclusively online from May 1 to July 1, 2021. This juried exhibition features works by 43 St. Louis regional artists. You can view all of the featured artworks in our Facebook album here.
We proudly introduce you to "Dreamlife" featured artist David Acquistapace.
____________________________
DAVID ACQUISTAPACE
 |
| Featured
in Art Saint Louis' “Dreamlife”: David Acquistapace, St. Louis, MO. “Minotaur, Massacio, Millet
& Dali.” 2020. Oil on Canvas, Digital Images, 30”x84”. Not for Sale. Artist’s statement: “I was thinking of the skeleton that Massacio painted in his Holy Trinity fresco when I made this painting. The disjointed relationships of the Minotaur skeleton image give a Vorticist effect which heightens the nightmarish monster-like quality. It is a meditation on death with a nod to Dali’s interpretations of Millet’s Angelus.” |
David Acquistapace: I think artists stop making pieces for a number of reasons, both within our control and out of it. Our attitude, persistence, and work ethic are all in our hands every day. We wake up every morning with another opportunity to make something happen with our art. On the other hand we are sometimes faced with lack of opportunities to show work, life circumstances that can sometimes overwhelm us (especially financial difficulties), or family commitments/responsibilities that can take us away from our art.
Yes, I came close to stopping on a few occasions when my life circumstances were rather challenging. Fortunately, I had very supportive people close to me who encouraged me to keep trying. And that is key; having people who love you and care about your artistic pursuits are absolutely an essential ingredient in your life.
 |
| David Acquistapace. "La Sede del Potere." 2018. Oil on Canvas, 72"x96". NFS. |
RP: Ever dream about any of your artwork?
DA: I presume you are asking if ideas for paintings come to me in dreams. Yes, I have dreamed entire paintings only to awaken my wife at 2 a.m. to tell her about it, and she sleepily replied, "That's nice honey, go in the other room and draw it out. Good night!"
The dreams have happened on several occasions but not out of the blue. In each case I was working on a number of different pieces at the same time and grappling with a multitude of problems and possible solutions. I often had a number of preliminary sketches and drawings of ideas but nothing solid. My subconscious just took over while I was sleeping and gave me the answer. I do not put too much stock in relying on my dreams because I know they are the outgrowth of many months of seriously hard work.
 |
| David Acquistapace. "stjohnthebaptistminotaur."2017. Oil on Canvas, 30"x30". NFS. |
RP: How has your art evolved throughout the years and describe the different stages of creating?
DA: I'll try to give a simplified timeline:
Student days: Exploration of ideas, learning new techniques, improving drawing and painting skills.
Early career: Mastering techniques, taking commissions, illustration work, and design work, and showing in commercial galleries.
Mid career: Back to graduate school for an MFA at age 35, new explorations of ideas, settling on a style and subject matter that fits my artistic goals.
Current: More exploration of ideas and expanding on previous images and concepts, refining style, NOT taking commissions, illustration, or design work. And I think most importantly, having retired with a comfortable enough income that I can focus solely on my work with no financial constraints. That is a good place to be.
I have had a few artists express concern over the fact that I put NFS on all my paintings right now. Somehow they cannot conceive of an artist not wanting to sell work. I am currently in the process of building a series that I believe will have more impact when seen all together in a single exhibit of twenty to thirty paintings. I would have to draw up contracts with buyers to retain the right to exhibit and not everyone is willing to do that. Also, I honestly do not need the money.
 |
| David Acquistapace. "Mentre tu Dormivi." 2018. Oil on Canvas, 48"x72". NFS. |
RP: What is the biggest point of inspiration for your artwork?
DA: For me there is no single point of inspiration but rather a multitude of things that conspire to ignite creativity. Reading, particularly Greek mythology, Ovid, and the writings of Italo Calvino (I have read every single book he has written, some five and six times). Drawing, both from life and my imagination. I keep a sketchbook and I draw only in ink; no do-overs. I get the most out of my sketchbooks when I visit museum exhibits, and the recent Millet and Modern Art exhibit at SLAM was no exception. Listening to great music, everything from classical to rock to country western, and writing and recording my own original music. Finally, great food and wine shared with friends and loved ones! You put all those together and you get an artistic gumbo, if you will, that feeds the creative imagination.
 |
| David Acquistapace. "Le Morte de Saint Louis." 2019. Oil on Canvas, 40"x40". NFS. |
RP: What is the best thing about St. Louis for your art practice?
DA: The answer to this question has surprised me a bit. When we were planning to retire here from California I had a lot of family, friends, and colleagues looking at me like I had lost my mind. Then when I moved here people in St. Louis thought I was crazy for leaving California! The truth is that we planned this for over a decade and were very methodical about choosing where to live. I made a list of "must haves" for any area I would live and St. Louis kept coming up in the top one or two places, which also included looking seriously at my paternal family home in northern Italy.
 |
| David Acquistapace. Sketch of Van Gogh Painting from the Millet and Modern Art Exhibit at SLAM. 2020. Permanent Ink, 7"x9". NFS |
For my art practice I have found a very supportive community here of like-minded artists as well as many opportunities to show my work. Additionally, St. Louis is centrally located to a good number of regional museums and non-profit art galleries around the Midwest and I have been showing in some of those venues as well. Add to that our world class art museum, a great symphony, multi-national chefs making amazing food, some of the very best city parks in the country, and a very low cost of living compared to most other large cities in America. I have made more art in the four years that I have lived here than the previous decade. So I guess you could say that St. Louis feeds my soul and that in turn keeps me creating new work.
 |
| David Acquistapace. "California Dreaming." 2018. Oil on Canvas, 36"x48". NFS. |
RP: What was your career path? How did you get from being an aspiring artist to doing it?
DA: I majored in art in college with a minor in advertising design. Along the way I took some courses at the Art Center in Pasadena and was fortunate to have a few professors who were working as illustrators in Los Angeles. This was in the mid 1970's long before the MacIntosh computer changed the course of commercial illustration and design forever. In those days if you could draw and paint well you could make a living as a designer/illustrator in L.A., which is what I did for over seventeen years. It was a simple case of supply and demand. There were a limited number of people doing good illustration and design work in southern California so we could command reasonably high fees. I was freelancing full time by the late 1970's and making a fairly good living.
I made the down payment for my first house off of the royalties from one book that I illustrated. I was also showing and selling original paintings in commercial galleries. When the Mac came out in 1987 the entire industry changed almost overnight. A lot of illustration work started being created in Photoshop and Illustrator (which drove prices down), and it meant that anyone who could afford a Mac could make money in my field. I bought the first MacPlus for just over $5,000.00 at the time which seems outrageous now. Imagine the computer you could buy today with that money! It had a 6" x 6" black and white screen, 2 mb of RAM, a 20 mb external hard drive, and a dot matrix printer. Still, I made a lot of money the first two years because many people did not get a Mac right away.
When prices dropped to the point that it was counterproductive for me to stay in business I went back to school, earned a teaching credential at UC Riverside and started teaching high school full time in 1991. At the same time I entered the MFA program at CSU Fullerton and finished that degree in 1998. I was hired in 1999 by College of the Desert to build their fledgling Digital Design & Production program and worked there until I retired in 2016. Through all those years I was consistently making my own art outside of illustration and design work and that is what I am focusing on now.
 |
| David Acquistapace. "Perseus." 2021. Graphite on Cold Press Illustration Board, 11"x15". NFS. |
RP: Do you have a studio routine? Most creative time of day to work? Process of thinking or setting up before you begin making?
DA: The real art/life lesson you get from having made a living full time as a freelance artist is that you do not have the luxury to wait for the most creative time of day or go through a special process of setting up before making art. So for me it is fairly straightforward as far as routine. I keep an eye on my hours each week and try to get in about twenty or so working on paintings. When I had to finish a painting for a recent exhibit those hours jumped to about forty or fifty per week for three months. The time of day varies but I do find that my energy level is higher earlier in the day and I don't drink as much coffee anymore to keep going at night.
 |
| David Acquistapace. Detail view "Perseus." 2021. Graphite on Cold Press Illustration Board, 11"x15". NFS. |
I keep all my paints and brushes ready to go so that there is minimal setup before I paint. That was a habit that I got into when I was freelancing. I also have a beautiful solid oak eight foot desk that I recently rebuilt after a moving accident crashed it down a flight of stairs. That was the desk where I did all my major illustration and design work in L.A. so it has a lot of meaning for me. How I acquired it in 1982 is a great story. My sister was working at Marie Callender's Restaurant as a waitress and called me up one day and said that Patty Callendar was selling off all the antiques in their warehouse in Orange CA. So I went over there and looked at all the furniture but did not see anything I wanted. As I was leaving I spotted this eight foot oak desk top sitting on top of a couple of old tables. I asked Patty if it had a base and she said no. The price was $200, I offered her $100, and bought it for $150. To this day it sits on top of a work table and has served my art needs faithfully for almost forty years. When it shattered in the fall I had a couple of carpenters give me bids on a rebuild and they were both way over $2,000.00. So I bought a LOT of clamps, sandpaper, glue, and screws, and rebuilt it myself. I refinished it with eleven coats of hand rubbed tung oil and could not be happier!
 |
| Artist David Acquistapace in his St. Louis area studio. |
RP: On what are you currently working?
DA: I have several paintings that are a continuation of my metaphysical series and a few drawings that started out as preliminary studies and evolved into finished drawings. The work that I am most excited about right now are pieces that I conceived and sketched out years ago and then put away. I do not want to go into any detail about them but I will say that I have shown the ideas to only two other people; my wife and an artist friend. My wife's comments were, "If you make those images you can forget about ever selling any of them", and my artist friend said, "That will surely offend somebody." That was enough input for me to know that I was on the right path.
____________________________
Roxanne Phillips is an artist and art educator based in St. Louis since 2001. She earned a MFA in Printmaking & Drawing from Washington University in St. Louis and BFA in Painting & Drawing from University of North Texas. Roxanne is an adjunct art instructor at Washington University in St. Louis and has worked with Art Saint Louis since 2017 as Administrative Assistant and Installer. From 2018-2020 she was Master Printer for Pele Prints. Her works have been featured in numerous exhibitions throughout the St. Louis region including at Art Saint Louis, Crossroads Art Studio & Gallery, and St. Louis Artists’ Guild. Her work is currently available at Union Studio in St. Louis. She has served as exhibit Juror for several regional exhibits & art fairs. Roxanne is past Board member of St. Louis Women’s Caucus for Art.
Comments