David Geiser: Hard Work Breeds Success

To be successful, an artist doesn’t need to be a well-rounded person, but it sure can help.

Take David Geiser for example. He’s lived an interesting life. Starting out in the underground comics scene in San Francisco, the prolific painter and illustrator has studied classical painting at École des Beaux-Arts in France and knows his artistic predecessors and modern brethren backward and forward. He’s traveled the world, refers to the printed works of writers Samuel Beckett and William S. Burroughs, and has cultivated friendships with a coterie of like-minded creative souls here on the East End. He also has more works on view, or being mounted soon, than can be easily recalled.

During a visit to his studio in the Springs last Tuesday, Mr. Geiser shared his insights on his artistic process and gave some sneak peeks of some of his newest works. Not surprisingly, the artist’s formula for success is nothing new: it comes down to hard work, creativity and an awareness of the world all around him.

“I’m up real early, that’s when I’m on fire,” he said, standing in his 300-square-foot studio in a wooded area in Springs, which smelled pleasantly of oils, glazes and tur-

pentine. The studio is chock-full not only of paintings and drawings of Mr. Geiser’s own creation but also pieces of artwork or craftsmanship made by others that inspire him—tribal African masks and statuary, primitive musical instruments, a bird decoy stitched of leather, a framed batik work that caught his eye at an estate sale and gifts from friends.

The artist—who also shares a Sag Harbor home with his wife, Mercedes Ruehl, and their teenage son, Jake—said that he starts his day early with a big cup of coffee and his notebooks. Mug in hand, he’ll write down ideas, something that’s caught his eye or piqued his interest, and then he’ll begin to draw.

“I could get five, six hours of work done before anybody is up,” he said.

The process continues all day—as the artist drinks a bit more coffee, takes a spin around the neighborhood on his bicycle or runs a few errands—often going late into the night as the ideas keep coming and the work urges him on. But sometimes knowing when to stop can be a conundrum, he said, adding that he will continue painting on a piece as long as he’s moved to do so.

“Bacon used to say that ‘if they don’t take them out of my studio, I’m going to ruin them time and time again,’” the artist laughed, referring to the figurative painter Francis Bacon. Mr. Geiser added that messing up can be an important part of the creative process. “We’d still be single-celled creatures if we didn’t make mistakes.”

Classified as an abstract expressionist, to the untrained eye, Mr. Geiser’s current work can be divided into two distinct arenas: paintings of a fluid variety, which evoke connections to nature and sensuality, and drawings of a more pointed, whimsical, intellectual style.

The genesis of his work comes from the world around him. It could come from nature—such as in “Uxmal,” a painting currently on exhibit at Sylvester & Co. in Amagansett, which was inspired by the landscape of the Yucatan peninsula (“One of the most poetic, most beautiful sites,” Mr. Geiser said). Or he could be moved by an iconic piece of artwork—such as his series of paintings on “the great carnal plant,” which was inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s painting of “St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness.” Even current events can provide a jumping-off point, such as for his “Women Better Bound Then Found” illustration, based on the infamous/unfortunate “binders full of women” quote by then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

For the paintings, Mr. Geiser said it’s a “natural process with natural materials” that he uses to express the “magnificence and ebb and flow of natural phenomena.” Water is a common font of inspiration, he said.

“I love walking in and standing in water, like when I’m fly fishing,” he said. “I want the paint to flow like the way a stream would erode a bank ... Oozing, weeping, distressing, weeping, flowing ... Carving out crannies and laying on the sediment ... Making beautiful forms. There’s something sensuous and sumptuous about oil paint.”

As for his illustrations (Mr. Geiser said he has no problem with the word “cartoon,” and that he is glad to see the blurred distinction of what was once considered “high” and “low” arts), the work is more figurative, more literal, than his paintings. The drawings, a blend of art and commerce—gallery-ready artwork, which is also reproduced as note cards—show more of the artist’s sense of humour and his appreciation for the absurd.

Mr. Geiser frequently attaches illustrated images in his email correspondence to friends. He also routinely posts them, and his paintings, on his Facebook page.

Though it’s not unusual for an artist to master many mediums, it is rare to find one who expresses such different points of view in his work while creating them simultaneously. It all comes down to time management, which is critical to the creative process for Mr. Geiser. Throughout the day, the artist will switch back and forth from laying down paint and glazes to writing down his thoughts or drawing and sketching while waiting for the paint to dry on his canvases and panels.

“One feeds the other,” he explained.

Though he is prolific, and certainly successful, the artist is also humble. When asked why someone should go see his work, after taking a few days to consider the question, Mr. Geiser said this:

“I only know that I get up every day at dawn and go to work trying to do something rare that wasn’t there before, and maybe evoke something rising to the surface, like a rainbow trout to a perfectly placed dry fly,” he wrote. To this email, he attached an image of a painting, “Fabulous Plant,” which will soon be on view at a gallery in Oregon in the New Year.

David Geiser’s “Uxmal” is currently on view at Sylvester & Co. in Amagansett. His “Positively Elemental” paintings are the subject of a solo show at The Artists Circle Barn in North Potomac, Maryland. Upcoming exhibitions include a series of illustrations at a group exhibit at 4 North Main Gallery in Southampton in January and paintings at the Butters Gallery Ltd. in Portland, Oregon in 2013.