David is a past president of UMVA and an improvisational painter in Belfast, Maine. He taught himself to draw and paint while growing up in Fort Fairfield and attending high school in Belfast. He earned a BFA degree in painting from RISD, studied a year in Rome and hitchhiked around Europe. He was drafted into the army and spent four years as an illustrator at Ft. Meade, MD. He earned a MSA degree from G.W. University and had a federal career in public affairs. He also practiced, studied and taught art, including 14 years of figure studies at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and workshops with prominent artists in three states. He explored many major museums in Europe and the U.S. He married a woman from Vienna, Austria and raised a son and daughter, then divorced and married a childhood classmate. In 1995 he retired from government and began to exhibit successfully in PA, NC and Maine. He has been in 24 solo shows and over 100 group and juried exhibits. His work is in private and organizational collections in 20 states and seven countries. He has produced nearly 11,000 pieces of art. His Maine roots and decades of study, experience and exploration are evident in the hard-won gravitas reflected in his work. His improvisations can be purely abstract but more often, oddly narrative. He says, “I want to be as surprised and intrigued as anyone else by what I make.”