Dave:
A term used to refer to the coolest person in a group.
“Oh man, I was the Dave of the party.”*
*Courtesy of the Urban Dictionary
Dave Speer was born in 1974.
1974: Fun Facts
- David Bowie (R.I.P.) released the album “Diamond Dogs.” It contains the song “Rebel, Rebel.” Dave is a rebel.
- Bear Grylls, the British survivalist, was born. Dave isn’t quite that hardcore.
- The cost of a gallon of gas was 55 cents. The cost of Dave’s original artwork, at that time, was $0.00
- Stephen King publishes “Carrie.” Dave, being less than a year old, was not yet able to write his name in the snow.
- Unfortunately, the album “Ace of Spades” by Motörhead wouldn’t be released until 1980. It’s a ROCKER. Dave wouldn’t hear the album for the first time until 2008, at the age of 34, but he would have enjoyed it when he was only 6!
Dave: Fun Facts
- Dave was raised in Montana, and one summer backpacked (overnight, carrying everything) over 150 miles. Some of that in 5-day stretches. Montana is supercool.
- He’s a Certified Fly Casting Instructor. What does that mean? He’ll help you learn to cast a fly rod if you’ve never done it. If you already know how but are struggling, he’ll stand by you and yell things like “stop that rod higher, dagnabbit!” — or — a favorite from his buddy Barry, a crusty old salt: “throw to the end that eats!” (For those of you who have never site fished, that means put the fly in front of the fish, not on its tail.)
- When he was 19, he drove the 3000 miles from Missoula, MT to Anchorage, AK. He had three albums (cassettes, remember?) in the car. Having already entirely worn out one of Johnny Cash’s zillions of greatest hits and “Willy and the Poor Boys” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, he was stuck with one album that a friend had left in the tape deck: “Highway 61” by Bob Dylan. Dave swore he hated Bob Dylan, until he listened to that album 967 times on the way to Anchorage. At a truck stop, he bought the only book on tape they had, which was a biography of Madonna. Well that killed an hour or so. So besides the incredible scenery, a day basically consisted of waking up, crawl out of the back of the car to watch the sunrise, spending the day attempting to learn all the words to “Desolation Row” (dang, that is a LOOOOONG song) while driving long enough to pull over, watch the sunset and crawl in the back of the car to sleep.
- Dave is an Eagle Scout which means two things:
- He over-packs the truck for a simple trip to the corner gas station (“Be Prepared”)
- He’ll never let you down, because the Boy Scout law says “A Scout is Trustworthy.” (Among other things, like “A Scout is Clean”, which, see below about man glitter…)
On Creativity
Growing up, Dave wasn’t the “creative one.” Oh sure, he played bass guitar in some rock n’ roll bands. Did some crafty things like tying flies (for fishin) and built some fly rods (also for fishin.) A creative crisis in 2007 had Dave attempting to draw fish with cheap watercolor pencils from an all-in-one art kit purchased from a hobby store. They were absolutely terrible.
The first breakthrough came in 2010 when he carved a duck decoy. It was kind of terrible, too, but he instantly realized he’d been playing in the wrong sandbox. Sculpture, 3D, “subtractive carving”– that was his deal. He quickly learned a few tricks and started selling a few wooden ducks. At his first decoy competition, Dave won first place.
Now Dave is working on painted wood carvings (think birds and fish), natural wood carvings (think female torsos), and chiseling and grinding out stone sculptures in limestone, soapstone and alabaster. He’s basically always covered in sawdust (man glitter) or stone dust. Once in a while, Dave will take a shower and sit down at the paint table and blend subtle feather transitions on his birds in oil paint.
Dave likes to get out and paint en plein air, too. But let’s be honest, when it comes to flat art, he’s still pretty bad at it.
Join Dave’s Party
You’ve come this far on our journey, why not join the party. (You’ll also get a beautiful wallpaper for your phone of one of my stone sculptures.)