Dave Newman is a self-taught artist living in Prescott, Arizona. He creates mixed-media constructions using his original photographs, found objects and vintage magazine articles and advertisements. On his website he writes, “Sometimes my art begins by the side of the road where I’ve found an interesting object. I search garage sales, junk yard and antique swap meets for items I can work into a painted collage…to weave a story with my art.” His work appears in restaurants and galleries around the West and at the Fender Guitar Museum in Germany.
Q: What kind of art are you known for?
A: Mixed media collages, acrylic paintings, and mixed media guitars, both playable and non playable.
Q: What are you working on right now?
A: I am always working on about 4 to 5 pieces at a time, and I am working on a few mixed media Route 66 pieces, heart paintings and a guitar for Fender who I have been working with the past 6years.
Q: Why do you make art?
A: Because I have to and want to create. It is my job, my hobby and my passion.
Q: What’s your current favorite, can’t-live-without-it junkyard find?
A: Too many finds, so here are a few images.
Q: What is your least favorite technique that you still use anyway?
A: I don’t have a least favorite one; I use them all the time and still enjoy them and learn from them every day.
Q: What’s your favorite tool or material?
A: My acrylic paints and found objects.
Q: What’s the best book you’ve read lately?
A: I am currently reading Keith Richards bio, which is on a Kindle. Next is Shepard Fairey’s ‘’Obey Supply & Demand’’ book, and it is a thick one!
Q: What’s the most inspiring trip you’ve ever taken or adventure you’ve ever had?
A: One of the best was to Paris and Amsterdam. Love the Van Gogh museum and the Picasso museum and Monet’s garden. Italy too! Also a trip to Round Top, Texas, to hunt for junk and hit Marfa on the way back home—quite surreal. I could never pick just one trip—too much fun.
Q: What’s the last thing you cooked?
A: I love to barbeque, and it was steak and corn on cob on the grill.
Q: Do you have a talisman/power garment/magical thing you wear?
A: Yes, it is called a paint splattered t- shirt—always a black one and with skull imagery most of the time.
Q: What’s your favorite place in all the world?
A: Wherever I am at the time.
Q: What one thing do you want to do that you haven’t done yet?
A: Have a retrospective at a museum.
Q: If you could surround yourself with only one color, what would it be?
A: Red Red
Q: What’s the best day you’ve ever had?
A: On the road with my wife Donna, hunting for junk, photographing signs and motels and a good barbeque place at the end of the day.
Q: What’s today’s Word to Live By?
A: Compassion
Q: What is your guilty pleasure?
A: Chimay Beer and great food with friends.
Q: What do you listen to when you create?
A: Loud fast music (Social Distortion)—it relaxes me. But I like a little of everything and lot of blues, too (Stevie Ray, The Black Keys, Dave Alvin). I could go on and on. I always paint with music in my studio.
Q: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
A: To make all people appreciate art, music and all the other arts. The world would be a better place for it. I don’t know what you would call this super power, but that’s what I would do.
Q: With whom would you love to spend one day making art?
A: Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns with Van Gogh mixed in.
Q: When is your favorite time of day?
A: Sunrise
Q: What is your earliest memory?
A: Riding in our old Buick dressed in my cowboy outfit.
Q: What’s your one favorite material thing?
A: My color Xerox machine
Q: What’s your best piece of advice for artists?
A: If you love what you are doing and in your heart it is the direction you want to go, pay no attention to people who want to bring you down, who are jealous and negative etc. And have a wife or husband, boyfriend, girlfriend (you get the drift) that you can talk to and get advice and support from. I might add that not always family members, such as parents and siblings, are supportive. It’s not always the case, but it happens.
To visit Dave Newman’s web site, click here.
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