Satchmo Painting

While continuing to refine my fine arts, I also enjoy my family and friends, gardening, community work, touring museums and galleries playing golf and traveling. theartistathand.com Robert V. P. Davis Most of my art reflects my life-long fascination with the inner self and the nature of humankind. Regardless of the subject, my work is characterized by a strong sense of color and a balance of lines, shapes and patterns that dance across the image plane. I begin with the initial idea and design, then abstract and purify it until I achieve a simplicity that is compelling in both content and shape. I am a versatile artist who has worked in mixed media and collage format throughout my career. Technique is important, but it is secondary to the concept. Throughout my career I have used the female figure to express my feelings and thoughts. I have also experimented with various media "” painting with oil, acrylic and inks on vinyl, polyester and polyethylene. These works were inspired by Pop artists, particularly Andy Warhol. My entire life I have struggled with dyslexia, not even learning until I was 32 years old why I had so much trouble spelling, reading, and writing. In mid-career I began using my art to bring attention to the subject by communicating the difficulties people with learning disabilities have in their constant struggle to understand and be understood, while managing the always present feelings of loneliness, fear and anxiety. I created an extensive body of work executed on paper and canvas in mixed media, using primarily words and letters, symbols of the English language, to convey my feelings. This work illustrates both the physiological and psychological problems of dyslexics. My goal was to enable people with normal reading skills to quickly experience how comprehension is inhibited when all concentration is spent simply deciphering letter combinations and forming words. Reading, writing, spelling, rhetoric -- most people take these essential skills for granted. But for those challenged by dyslexia, these are complex processes which make even the simplest communication an arduous task. In 2000, I turned to the camera and computer as my creative media, beginning with a series of self-portraits. The result is a significant body of work merging images from nature and the interiors of iconic institutions in European cities and Baltimore to inspire a new level of interest in their significance.