David Michael Jackson | Works of Modern Art

D M Jackson

Welcome to ModernArtBy
My art has been on the internet since I started Artvilla.com in 1998.
My images have been seen by thousands of people. The internet has influenced my art tremendously. On the net, paintings must stand out in thumbnails. Often that can create art that looks good at a distance.

I'm an engineer who did art to break out of that box.
I know that I don't have to explain that.

I was born in Port Royal, Tennessee.My mother is from Brazil. In WW2 my father was stationed in Belem, Brazil. Being raised by a little Brazilian woman in Tennessee in the 1950's on a tobacco farm in Tennessee creates someone who is always searching for identity. I always think that my Brazilian half comes out in the art.
My art search was rebellious. I always say that but people often refer to my art of color as serene or mystical. With abstract art, I considered "intent" and description useless. I started painting without intent, creating shapes that I could find meaning in. I sometimes wanted no up or down or orientation. I wanted no meaning except for whatever the viewer found. I paint that canvas until I find something. My goal has always been to put this paint on that canvas. That takes the pressure off. Whatever demons or search for meaning are in me can jump in there too. Meaning is an elusive elf. You search for it and hope that you end up with something that at least shows the journey. Hopefully the viewer can change it to a personal quest. The announcer telling you what the artist meant is always secondary to what you perceive.
I seemingly strike randomly and emotionally and then I discover shapes and colors which often need correcting. Only the last layer shows. I live with the piece until I suddenly correct it or change it or cut it up.
It's refreshing to say, "What does it mean to you?" I loved it when my musician friend Abe said of a painting, where I saw a landscape, "Are you blind? Do you not see the stage, and the band?".
I go for something I discover later, something unintended that gives me feelings of wonderment.
When a person buys art, it is because that art strikes a unique chord which is in tune with the artist but of a deeply personal melody.
That is my search and it's the search of the art lover. I'm happy to have the viewer see a frog where I see a rock.
Sometime an obvious meaning sometimes comes out. Some orientation often emerges. Animals somehow appear. Is their plight part of my subconscious or was I painting for all of the children coming to my website in the first ten years of the internet?