David Brown painting at The Hay House

Artist's Statement

My art is as much about my way of life and my farm as it is about the visual record that I make of it. I live without electricity or plumbing in a very small house made of hay bales and grow most of my own food. I address issues of scale and sustainability in American culture, both on my farm and in the art that is inspired by it. In my largest piece, The Hay House Installation, I recreated my home in paint on boards, three dimensionally and to scale, so that viewers could be literally surrounded by my work and my philosophy.

 

David Brown Hay House Documentary

Learn more about David in the documentary, "David Brown and The Hay House" by SamDog Films.

Portraits are what I most like to paint, so in The Hay House Installation I included an assemblage of portraits called The Community Mandala, which addresses issues of iconography, labels, saints and every day heroes. Through this piece I was able to include and acknowledge my community, without whose support and inspiration I could not continue to do what I have been doing.

 

I spend as much time as I can painting subjects on the farm, such as flowers, eggs and chickens...exploring their visual patterns and magical significance.

 

Since the age of twelve I have been fascinated by animation and for the last fifteen years I have been working in series, painting the same scene or instant over and over, on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. I've then had a filmmaker dissolve the individual paintings into a sequence, which I hope will make the viewer more aware of the timeless progressions that are eclipsed by our frenetic lifestyle.

 

My life is both performance art and the inspiration for the paintings I create. I hope to achieve a mastery of the medium while inspiring viewers to question.