davidburnssmith's Profile

Bio

Born in a Mississippi River town, I was raised on the edge of a farming community, made drawings, cardboard spaceships, & had a dog named Murphy. Attending Southern Illinois University, I discovered sculpture, printmaking, & Photography, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1998.

I moved south on the Mississippi in 1998 to attend graduate school at Memphis College of Art, where I earned a Master of Fine Arts degree. In 2000 I exhibited Anodyne at the Memphis Art Center. In 2001, I adopted a Basset Hound & named him Tony.

From there, I traveled north on the Mississippi to become Assistant Director of Xen Gallery in Saint Louis, Missouri. Etching a studio out of a 19th century Saint Louis basement, I began a career as a studio artist. In 2005, I produced the solo exhibit the Arcana, consisting of 24 paintings on wood. The Arcana was followed in 2007 with my next solo exhibit Tzolk’in, an exhibition of paintings and sculptures on wood.

Presently, I share a home and studio with my wife Mary Cheragotti, where I am working on paintings from the series Ragnarok. The culmination of this series will be exhibited as The Ragnarok Project in May 2009 at Wild Flower.

My work can be seen at The Grove Furnishings and Mississippi Mud House in Saint Louis, MO, The Jacoby Art Center in Alton, IL, Kaskaskia College in Centralia, IL, Memphis College of Art in Memphis, TN, and the recently defunct Xen Gallery in Saint Louis, MO. My paintings and sculptures are in private collections in Taipei, Taiwan, Washington D.C., Detroit, MI, Indianapolis, IN, Minneapolis, MN, Austin, TX, Oakland, CA, & New York, NY.

Male, Born on April 1