David Dohan’s Jasper Galleries show at Sound Bites is coming to a close after a month of sharing his unique perspective on the natural world.
A Columbia artist, Dohan was born in Connecticut of Italian, Hungarian, Czechoslovakian, and Polish descent.
“My family, generations of fisherman, carpenters, mechanics, and engineers, moved down to Naples, Florida, in the early 80’s for work in a place that was just starting to boom,” he recalls, “There I grew up amongst temperate pine forests, lowland swamps of the everglades, limestone filtered lakes, and crystal-clear waters of the Florida Keys.”
It wasn’t long after this that Dohan had his first experience with art, but it was not simply making art in a class that served as the catalyst—it was early childhood defiance.
“The power of art and how it affects people has been burned into my memory from a very early age. My first memorable moment of its power was as early as first grade. When the teacher had to step away for an emergency and told us all to remain seated…I grabbed my chair and slid it up close to the chalkboard, grabbed the chalk, and stepped up onto it,” he reminisces, “On my tippy toes I drew the biggest cartoon dinosaur I could. A three-foot-tall T-Rex that, as I recall, looked amazingly like Barney. The students were amazed, and for the first time in my life I felt talented. My heart is filled with such pride whenever someone says my art is beautiful.”
That moment led Dohan to draw every day until the point, as a teenager, he never left home without a sketchbook and tools. When it was time to go to college, he knew an art path was the only option. He chose to attend Ringling School of Art and Design, where he graduated with a BA in Fine Arts, majoring specifically in computer animation and video production. At Ringling, however, he experimented with a plethora of tools and techniques.
“Ringling is renowned for teaching classic foundational techniques with experimentation of all mediums while being trained in composition, color, design, and appeal with a focus on the ways of the masters,” he shares, “It was vigorous and immersive at the same time. We were given creative freedom but had to follow specific goals in order to complete our projects as we rotated through all the mediums.”
The mediums Dohan explored there included charcoal, pastel, oils, acrylics, clay, wood, metal, photography, and printmaking—however, among all these, one stood out: watercolor.
“I love the way watercolor is immersive, unpredictable, and chaotic. I found myself drawn to the way it flows, reacts, and is defined by the paper, gravity, and additives in the water,” he shares, “I found it challenging to control and it led me to search for the best techniques to produce the qualities I was looking for.”
As he has honed his techniques over the years, Dohan finds that he utilizes various ones even today as it is the subject matter that truly determines the technique.
“Sometimes I do a piece with straight on brushwork, wet on wet, dry on dry, or washes. I also like to photograph my subject in multiple angles and lighting. This allows me to construct my artwork using this imagery to produce my compositions,” he details,” I use one of my favorites which is masking and pouring. It allows me to fully think of the subject and create the details needed to fully capture the subject while building detail with additional techniques like scraping, stippling, spattering, even using soap, and salt for texture.”
To prepare for this exploration of subject matter and technique, Dohan often starts with an image; this image may be a specific, singular leaf or an idea in his head that he needs to storyboard and sketch.
As he emphasizes, “Finally after completing hundreds of thousands of marks the piece is completed but only when every millimeter of the page has been realized, all positive and negative space has been balanced, and the idea can be understood from a stranger's perspective.”
The image these strangers will find when looking at Dohan’s work will almost always be that of the natural world, specifically landscapes.
“I always felt landscapes are very relaxing to paint. I enjoy being able to prepare some paper, throw some paint on it and just see what comes of it,” he explains, “This is how the canyon series evolved. They were experiments in different palettes and techniques and how the paint reacted to different papers. I slowly evolved them and pushed myself to create depth, perspective, form, texture, and build each piece with each additional technique and readjusting with each addition.”
Though Dohan paints landscapes, paints images of the natural world as it is, this does not limit his creativity—not in the least. In fact, it compounds it.
“I draw a lot from my imagination. Creating characters, alien worlds, underwater reefs, and landscapes that I have gleaned from my various travels around the country. I love science, technology, and the natural world,” he effuses, “I am amazed at how our universe works. The physics of it and the life in it. I try to see good in everything, all the while, trying to make it through this life without harmfully colliding with everything else. I am amazed by the flow of time, growth, and how life evolves. How everything affects the things around it.”
For his show at Sound Bites, Dohan decided to select a number of pieces from across his career, a sampling of his vast imagination’s take on the world’s vast landscape.
“All of these pieces are from different time periods of my career, very early to quite recent. I tried to show a good variety of styles, mediums, and subject matter. I also pulled some pieces out of my personal collection that I have held onto for decades,” he intimates, “I hold a very personal attachment to all of my artwork since I mostly do my artwork for myself. I try to create something that I feel is beautiful and that I would put on the walls of my home. I believe that people try to surround themselves with beauty and to showcase their personal style.”
For those who viewed the show at SoundBites—and all those who view his work in the future—Dohan’s main goal is to craft a bond between patron and painting: “I just hope that someone will have a special connection with the art I create and love it enough to own it. Only then it can have the chance to show those around you a little piece of your personality that is sometimes untold.”
And connections he has made. Dohan’s art career has a thread of success running through it, having a healthy handful of recognition and exhibition under his belt, including:
1994 – First year college works - The Eleven Young Artist Exibition – Cove Gallery, Naples, Florida
1995 – Naples Art Association Scholarship in Art Competition Award – Emerging Artist Show
1998 – Ringling School of Art and Design – Best of Ringling Award – Annual Juried Student Exhibition
1998 – Siggraph 98 -International Conference of Computer Graphics and Interactive Technology
Senior Thesis – The Wonder of It All – Computer Animated short - Was included in the broadcasts on kiosks throughout the conference.
1998 – Sixth Annual Digital Salon – Wonder of it All - Computer Animated short
1998 – Ventues- Visual Art Museum – New York
1999 – Circulo de Bellas Artes – Madrid, Spain
1999 – Triennale di Milano - Milan, Italy
1999 – Centro de Cultura Contemporanea – Barcelona, Spain
1999 – Sala de Exposiciones CAM – Alicante, Spain
2000 – Electronics Exhibition – University of Tampa Scarfone/Hartley Galleries
Dohan’s work may come down from Jasper Galleries at Sound Bites this weekend, but he isn’t going anywhere.
“I have the Cottontown Art Crawl in the spring of next year lined up. I try to have a collectors show every year. I invite my fan base to come and look at the newest of my works, but a venue has not been decided,” he shares, “I am always working on new pieces and these days they take longer and longer. Especially since life sometimes gets in the way of its creation.”
You can see Dohan’s current and past work at his website or on his Facebook page.
Curious patrons and interested artists can learn more about Jasper Galleries here.