Thank you for taking the time to review my work and stopping by to learn more about me. Below are two videos that share the “Why” and “How” behind the art. If you scroll down, you will find more of my personal story – along with a surprise at the end and a link to some of my earliest sketches, dating back to 1974.

1993-Present

I made a career life change.  I began a two-year program to train as an EEG Technician.  The mind has always fascinated me as a sports/competitive tool.  This seemed like a shortcut for me.  I had an early block about education.  I never wanted to be told “what to learn”, as I wanted to be taught “how to learn.” During school, I was introduced to a video called “The Mind’s Eye.”  This was a pivotal point for me. Learning about the physiological process of how we see was truly enlightening. It made me think about my early art adventures and creativity.

I jumped into photography in the late 90’s, working with kids.  The kids’ parents would tell me how their children would change just by looking at their images.  I made large prints – 24x36 – mostly of kids engaging in sports. I went on a research path and discovered a whole new world. At this time, I was only aware of the visual process and was unaware of the subconscious. I started using photography to change lives. I started a non-profit called “The I Am Me Project.”  I worked with Easter Seals, battered women’s shelters, and the like. I am grateful for the photography experience, but it never quite filled my creative bucket.  I always found myself wanting to be more organic and desired to stop looking at a computer screen as my canvas.

I was living in a downtown loft in Denver.  The West was one of my childhood romances, second to scuba diving.  When I was a kid, my mom would come home from work and find me either riding like on a horse or on the floor, swimming with a dive mask . In my loft, I wanted a contemporary piece of art.  I was researching some of William Matthews’ work, but I was short $30,000.  I just decided to paint on my own.  At that moment, “David Alderman Arts” was created!

I wanted to create art that would evoke a specific emotional response in the viewer. Ha! Not a new concept, right?!  I just kept falling back thinking about that movie, “The Mind’s Eye.” I produce art and now sell it to collectors and commercial projects.  I remember just feeling a gap in my concepts and visions.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, I began researching how observing art can alter one’s physiology. I think we all have this mystical knowledge of how that works.  What I found was the science! There are graduate programs; one of my favorites is at the University of Arizona.  This was a giant step in my life path.  Additionally, learning that the Norwegians are prescribing art as a healing tool for post-surgical patients was a revelation to me.

The Change:

It was around June 2021 when I was asked to paint a full-sized Unicorn for a non-profit in Denver, called “The Uncommon Project.”  I was given total creative freedom on the project.  I was observing the blank fiberglass mold and kept seeing geometric shapes, and that is exactly what I did for the next four weeks. At the fundraiser gala, people were telling me that the Unicorn was speaking to them.  Curious as I am, I began exploring geometric shapes and mostly studied the Cubist Artist, Picasso. This prompted me to explore a 2D version of what I had seen in 3D with the Unicorn.

While spending countless hours studying – diving deep into the most cutting-edge theories on the end of space and time in Quantum Physics, I explored the brilliant work of Nima Arkani-Hamed at the Princeton Lab.

I found some crystal polygons demonstrated by a group in the San Francisco area called QGR (Quantum Gravity Research).  I started using polygons to overlay images and used them as guides to cut a 2D image into geometric forms.  Now I had this quantum-based geometric art.  I produced two pieces with the same reaction – that the art was like a language.  This has only driven me to understand more and to refine my technique! While spending hours and hours learning and even cutting-edge theory on the end of “space and time” quantum from the brilliant mind of Nima Arkani-Hamed, at the Princeton lab.  I used his “amplituhedron” to convert the perception of reality into a geometric form, thereby communicating and simplifying the almost impossible.    Given all this new knowledge, I realized I needed a better foundation. Hmmm…a little reverse engineering, perhaps?  I want to use triangles.  Triangles are the simplest polygons – a common approach to complex problems, such as analyzing a complex surface.  Out of all the two-dimensional shapes, only the triangle is rigid—the triangle: the simple shapes that make our mathematical, physical worlds go around.

Of course, by using the triangle, one would think to dive into the evolution of the Pythagoras Theorem.  Although this concept took several months to grasp, I felt that Plato’s Theory of Forms resonated most with me.  As I advance my skill, I can probably say that Plato’s “The Form of the Good” is what I want to rest my legacy on.

Socrates, a student of Plato, said:  “This is how I see – “ (in the Republic VII 517 B.C.)

In the knowable realm, the form of the good is the last thing to be seen, and it is reached only with difficulty.  Once one has seen it, however, one must conclude that it is the cause of all that is correct and beautiful in anything, that it produces both light and its source is the visible realm, and that in the intelligible sphere it controls and provides truth and understanding so that anyone who is to act sensibly in private or public must see it.

NEW YEARS 2024 THOUGHTS