A Staycation in Dallas and Fort Worth visiting Artist David Bates

Everyone has a favorite artist, and my favorite living artist is David Bates. I love his still life sculptures of flowers and forms from this part of the country. His artwork is not intimidating or fancy.

It is art for the everyday person.

David Bates still lives here in Dallas and has a fantastic two part exhibit at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and The Nasher Sculpture Center of Dallas.

Can you image walking into a world class museum and seeing your work displayed for all to see? Did you know that he grew up in Garland TX and graduated from SMU?

After reading about his up coming exhibit in the D Magazine,
I became excited to plan my sightseeing trips.

My family asked me about my birthday plans, and I convinced them to drive to the Modern's exhibit on Sunday which happened to be MY BIRTHDAY. As my husband and I were waiting for the rest of the brunch bunch, I spotted David Bates walking into the museum.
I had a moment! Was it really him? It was.
We asked the staff at the ticket desk if it was him and was he approachable, which they replied yes. After a lovely brunch we wandered through the exhibit backwards to see if he was still there.
Yes he was.....my husband is so cute, he introduce himself,

and said he wanted to introduce two art teachers that admired his art work.

My daughter who is also a painter and art teacher was a star struck as I was. Maybe that is why my eyes are closed.....dang.

Thank you Mr. C for making this possible. It was the best birthday which included this bunch.

David Bates was very friendly and encouraged us to visit the Nasher to see the second part of his exhibit of paintings and sculptures.

Sooo.. my art teacher friend and travel companion Karen and I did that today. Did I mention it was over 80 degrees and gorgeous today???

Lucky for me, they allowed photography at the Nasher. The wonderful staff also told us about visiting with David Bates when he visits his work.

We learning how he creates his bronze sculptors that are cast from cardboard, and wood.

He mentioned in our brief conversation at the Modern, how fun it was to work with cardboard and I expected cardboard sculptures. He uses a lost wax casting method of creating a mold from each piece and then reassembles the bronze sculpture and paints it to look like cardboard or wood again. If you have ever seen the Debra Butterfield video which documents her horse sculptures then you know what I am talking about. In fact he used the same Walla Walla foundry for some of his earlier sculptures in Washington as did Debra did for her horse sculptures.