Pieces of Dave's work photographed for inclusion in the Local Artists Collection:
Spiderweb
Triangle Man

VB: What inspires you when you're creating stuff?
DB: Boring, flat raw materials becoming an object of beauty - it almost gives it a soul. It's also the people who get enjoyment out of things I build. Knowing that they're appreciated.

[I also draw a lot of] ...inspiration from other people who love what they do, even in other fields. There are also other people that see the world through metalcraft. People who eat, sleep, and breathe the craft [perfecting it]. And that is what I pursue, by the way - is perfection - which is unachievable, by the way.

[The fact that working with metal can be hard comes up here. And painful--Dave notes that you can get splinters from metal as well as wood.]

VB: What happens when you cut metal? How do you get splinters?
DB: The sheared edges are very sharp. Drilled holes [can also be sharp along] the bottom part ... the drill has two cutting edges, and when the very bottom of the piece comes out, it twists out, and it can be very sharp. And that can get you. Sometimes.

It's a constant battle against strength [working with metal]. If it were wood, I could break it with my bare hands, but that stuff ... man!

VB: [I encourage Dave to talk about how he develops ideas for the pieces he creates.]
DB: When you come to me with a general idea, that's all I need. When my hands are in motion, my thoughts run through my hands when I start to work on things ... Sometimes when I see things, I just have ideas. That's how Triangle Man started. It started with the middle piece, just seeing it laying there on my workbench. The general idea was there when I started, and the refinement came when I started working.

Craftsmanship is like a silent art. That's why I have such a hang-up on sales men. All they're doing is just talking, they're not generating anything. "He who talks too much cannot participate."

[Discussion of run-ins with various tool salesmen ensues, but none is captured.]

DB: I have a hard time with people calling me artistic. You know what it takes to build it and you can de-erect it in your mind ... [Building off a prior conversation, Dave brings up his distaste for artistic works which were not constructed with the idea in mind that the item would need to stand on its own. In the prior conversation, he pointed out that works which need structural supports to stand upright lose something. The need for support detracts from their beauty. In this interview he continues on that theme.] [The structural] integrity [of my work] is one of my focuses all the time.

VB: What do you call what you do?
DB: Modern day metal fabrication mostly. What you call cold-working, so there's no heat to form the shapes.

VB: [How is that different from blacksmithing?]
DB: What blacksmiths do is called forge-welding, where you heat the metal to a super-critical temperature, but too much higher and it vaporizes, and lower and it won't forge together. And once it's at super-critical temperature you beat it together with a hammer.

[Conversation turns to Dave's mentors over the years.]

DB: There was a guy that I started with, Bobby Nead, and I wish I could've worked with him for years. And he was the kind of guy that just [had the attitude of] -- "Don't stand in my way" -- and that's awesome.

My grandfather was a machinist. [One of the things he always taught me was] Always keep in the back of your mind to try to find a better way to do things.

Faye Butler is another inspiration. That dude there, he was something else. He was an intelligent guy. And had a unique way of looking at the world.

[Dave takes a moment here to recount his own training and background, and continues.]

I have a certificate in TIG Welding, which is Tungsten Inert Gas Welding, from Hobart ... in Ohio. [Dave tells that although he went through the training and received the certificate, he didn't feel that he had done enough in a three-week class to be certified.]

The first time I met Faye, he and I hit it off right away. And we got talking, and it turns out we have the same welder, it's a pretty rare welder, about $10,000. And if you know how to use it it can be your best friend, but if you don't, it can be your worst enemy. But I know how to use it because I read up on it, you know. ... It was dark that night [that we were talking] -- and I felt like I learned more that night in three hours than I did in the creme-de-la-creme best institute in America.

It was very inspirational that night, talking to him. Of course then I went through a three-and-a-half day course with him, 16 hour days, and he broke every convention -- and he's successful.

VB: [What is the draw for you to TIG welding versus other types of welding?]
DB: The attraction to me with TIG welding is, ...to me it's the only way to weld. How it works is there's a power source, and a hand-held torch, and in the center of that torch is a piece of tungsten, which is the same element as a filament in a lightbulb. ... Your foot rests on a foot pedal that's like an accelerator in a car. And then in your other hand you have a filler rod piece that's the same [element/alloy] as the base piece you are welding. And then as you push the foot pedal there's an arc that protrudes from the base metal and the tungsten. And the further you push the foot pedal, increases the amperage, which equals the heat input. Then you start traveling on the joint -- [that's what it's called, traveling -- and] you're adding a sufficient amount of heat to increase the temperature of the base metal to bring it to a melting point and then adding a sufficient amount of filler rod to ensure the integrity of the welded joint.

[The conversation drifts off to other topics, and the interview ends.]