“My earliest experience with art came from looking at the pictures in a bible that my mother kept on her coffee table.

 

As a kid, I spent many hours flipping through and staring at each picture individually. The pictures represented in this old bible were by well-known Renaissance painters. They were vividly colorful, moving, fantastical, and most of them were tragic in their subject matter.

 

On the bible’s front cover perimeter were simple line drawings, depicting the stations of the cross. The stations are a pictorial depiction of a man’s (Jesus Christ) last hours of life. The hours could easily represent a lifetime, as he is confronted with grief, comfort, and isolation through this journey to his inevitable fate.

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I call this series (A Fairytale) because I hope that it will have that same wonderous ingredient that stimulated my imagination years ago, opening new worlds to explore in my mind.

 

I understand that a Fairytale may offer profound meaning to children and play a role in shaping their imaginations and perceptions of life, with all its intricacies and burdens. These stories become vehicles of learning that teach how to absorb an image, a sound, or a word, in a meaningful way.

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The story of Jesus Christ, and his final journey represents a trail of human strength and frailty. It’s a lesson in compassion while we live in a time where love and empathy are replaced by greed and selfishness. The main character in this story could have been any one of thousands of spiritual leaders.

 

I chose this one because he relates to my own background, education, and experiences. I hope that my completed body of work will inspire other artists, younger artists, children, and adults alike, to bravely speak their truths, explore their vulnerable selves and to reflect true feeling, in their art, relationships and in life.” –David DeCesaris