MANDYLAND: DAVID CAESAR

MANDYLAND: DAVID CAESAR
By Mandy Richardson for Echo Weekly
May 5 -11, 2011


With almost two dozen exhibitions over the past ten years, winner of 5 awards including first place in the 2010 "Artsinform" juried show at the Library of the University of Guelph, and a main feature in selected publications and collections, artist David Caesar is certainly making an impact in our region.

Born in Guelph and raised in Elmira, David was encouraged by both his magical mother and his detail oriented father to pursue his artistic passions; not surprising considering the fact that his dad was a high school art teacher. Along his path, David went to school for Classical Animation, discovered it was not a fit, and ended up graduating from the Illustration program at Sheridan College. In 2005, David moved back to Guelph where he teaches at the Guelph School of Art. He is also a caretaker of two crows; Loki and Poe, at Wild Ontario; a volunteer position that has influenced his art and has touched his heart in equal measure.

What A Family!

“My parents are great. And eccentric. My dad is a retired high school art teacher who spends his days plotting out massive canoe trips. He also makes very very small boats. They're made from pieces of different types of metal and fitted together - hard to explain. He sits in front of the television wearing a pair of magnification visors on his head and goes to work on these things. They're all to scale of one another (ranging in size from a few millimetres to about an inch) and the detail is insane: aircraft carriers will have teensy-tiny little planes on them, the battleships have guns that turn, there are even propellers on some of the boats that spin. Seeing him do this activity since I was a baby probably gave me my anal retentive nature in painting and drawing. I blame him.

“My mom is even more eccentric. She's a magician. She's the founder and president of the Canadian Association of Magicians and the one-time president of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. I know this sounds kinda bizarre and that's because it is. She never stops moving. I wish I could say that I got my work ethic from her, but I could use a bit more of that! Being as wonderful as they are, they never tried to push me into a different direction than that of art. Very understanding folk. And honestly, life has been easy because of them.”

Birds of Inspiration:

“One thing that adds a significant amount of colour to my life is Wild Ontario, a Birds-of-Prey facility at which I volunteer. I heard about them a couple of years ago and decided to contact the co-ordinator, Jenn Bock, to set up a photo shoot in the interest of gathering art reference. So we set the meeting up and that is when I met Poe and Loki; two crows whom I fell madly in love with and the feeling was apparently mutual. So Jenn asked me to join and I didn't have to think very long before saying "yes" with a big, stupid grin on my face. I love this organization. They've done a lot for me and for my soul. And being there provides reference and an endless source of inspiration.”

On Nature and Life as an Artist:

“I'm also adamant that my work has elements of the natural world as well as that of the "human-made". There are endless juxtapositions to be found. We're living in interesting times and they're only getting more so. It seems that everyone is looking around, or listening to CBC and wondering just what the hell is going to happen next! A bit scary. And with art being an admittedly impractical skill to have, it can arguably be a scary time to be an artist. But its also a great time to be an artist for the same reasons.”

You can join David Caesar Art on Facebook and view David's entire CV on www.davidcaesar.com. You can also listen to the Mandyland Radio interview with David on Mandyland Rocks on iTunes.

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