MY ART

MY STORY AS PAINTER/PROFESSOR

Photos of My Early Life

MY STORY

These are the guidelines for Project 1. The project itself is open ended and can have multiple interpretations. Assume your grade will be an A so long as you make an effort to tell your story. Don't worry about pleasing me, this is about you and how you would like to tell your story.

In the past students have made traditional art pieces, short videos, collages, triptychs, sculptures, puppet shows, quilts, comic style stories, storyboarded stories, powerpoints, flash shows, songs, poems, traditional literary writing, prose, plays, and even origami. The end product is completely open...if you can think of it, you can do it (bear in mind although I'm not a prude, some discretion should be accounted for taste).

Biography
David E. Harmon was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He realized that he wanted to be a painter when he had seen the traveling Vincent Van Gogh exhibition at the City Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri. He also spent hours studying the rich German Expressionist collection there.Harmon received much encouragement and critique from his professor painting mentors including Philip Sultz of Webster University and Richard Mayhew of Penn State University. Both professors had studied with such notable artists such as Max Beckmann, Charles Burchfield, Edwin Dickinson and Hans Hofmann.
Harmon holds an MFA in painting from Penn State University and a BFA in painting from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri. For over 30 years, David has shown his work in several International and National art exhibition venues including museums, galleries, and community art centers. Harmon has taught at several universities and colleges including the University of Arizona, The State University of New York, The University of Southern Mississippi, Indiana University, Ball State University, Howard Payne University, Bethel College and The Savannah College of Art and Design. He also taught drawing and painting at the Liverpool Institute of Higher Education as an exchange professor during the spring 1988 term from the State University of New York. Harmon has traveled internationally in Australia, Europe and Japan.
Harmon has run the gamut in his work including hard edged abstraction, figurative realism, and expressionism .His most recent drawing and painting, centers on free form interpretations of ancient mark making processes of world cave art. The series is entitled Primus. A sub category entitled Omnis is his most recent painting. The spontaneity of this latter body of work has signaled to him an inner call to continue this artistic productivity and process for some time to come.

·        Age 12 I wanted to be an artist after my parochial principal recognized my talent

·        I watched John Nagy’s Learn to Draw TV series(so did Andy Warhol) in the 1960’s

·        My high school home room teacher and art teacher/foot ball coach Ray Cliffe are artists, age 14-18 encouraging my painting

·        I send away for drawing lessons from the Art Instruction Schools, but the program is too expensive for our family to afford

·        I visit the gateway Arch designed by Eero Saarinen, the Climatron, a geodesic dome, the Planetarium which looks like an alien mothership had landed,Lambert Airport designed by Minoru Yamasaki,all examples of modernist design and architecture. These make an indelible impact on me and my love for modernist architecture.

·        I work at Grace Sign Company using graphic drawings for industrial screen printing signage for 1 year after HS, in St. Louis,1971-1972

·        I begin Meramec Community College commercial art program ,full time 1972-1974

·        I study K-12 art certification at Notre Dame College, St. Louis,1974-1975

·        I receive my first museum purchase of a photograph via the Missouri Photographer’s Exhibition , the City Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri,1976

·        I study painting at Webster university with Phil Sultz ,receiving my BFA in painting 1977

·        I work for Mt. Rainier National Park, summer 1977

·        I travel to Europe fall 1977

·        I study painting at Penn State University 1979-1982 studying with Richard Mayhew,receiving my MFA in 1982.

·        I meet my wife Susan Nusbaum originally from Chicago. We marry in 1981.

·        We have 4 children from 1985-1991:Jim,Steve,Danny and Mike

·        I begin my college teaching career in 1982-present ,teaching studio art and art history at The University of Southern Mississippi, the University of Arizona, The State University of New York, The Liverpool Institute of Higher Education, UK, Keystone College, Bethel College, The Savannah College of Art and Design, Sterling College and Howard Payne University.

·        I do a long radio interview at Savannah State University campus jazz station, December 2006,Savannah, Georgia

·        I have well over 125 exhibitions of my work in art galleries, cultural centers and museums

·        Retrospective of my painting 32 Years of Art Making ,1980-2012 at the Dorothy and Wendell Mayes Art Gallery, Howard Payne University, Fall 2012-Winter 2013

·        I begin my PhD in Critical Studies and Artistic Practice program at TTU, Fall 2015