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David Parks, who goes
by Perx, has his paintings
on display at Art
Pannonia in downtown
Blacksburg.
Alan Kim | The Roanoke Times |
New River Valley artist Dave Parks — who uses the name Perx among friends and in the art world — sports a mustache that would delight Salvador Dali. He turns out the kind of paintings that immediately reveal something of the process of their creation, exuding an edginess and the heft of an Oldsmobile. With a rare exhibit on display in Blacksburg, Perxsat down to offer a few insights into drip painting, razor blades, spatulas and other favorite implements.
What’s your process?
Perx: I paint on plywood mostly, not really on canvas much … Mostly laying down a lot of real thick paint in a similar fashion to the way people would use Gesso, which is a base for most paintings like acrylics or oils. And the Gesso, if you’re a realist, you try to put it down as smooth as you can. I do the opposite. I put it down real thick, and then I go for a texture that will allow me to bring out many layers later. … Sometimes I force it to dry quicker so I can make the textures stand up. If you try to work it when it’s too wet, it just lays back out. … So you have an initial texture that gives you some depth right off the bat.
What materials do you work with?
Perx: I tend to stick with paint. I’m starting to do some stuff with crushed glass — different colors of glass — which adds another dimension to it because of the light-reflecting capabilities of it.
Is there a place that you’re coming from aesthetically or philosophically?
Perx: I don’t know about philosophically. I don’t tend to put too much "art speak" into my art. … Sometimes my art initially starts from something in nature, and other times I just set down some paint and see where it goes.
How long have you been making art?
Perx: Ever since I can remember. Even as a small kid I always did something: pick up a stick, see some part of a face or something in it and carve it out, maybe put some paint on it. I played with mud pies like most kids do when they come across a good pile of mud, but I’d always try to make something out of it.
What was the point when it became a more refined process for you?
Perx: Shortly after I went to school for photography. I did a lot of photography for many years. I guess about the time I was working for Virginia Tech. When I was there, I started doing a lot of stone art — sandblasting images into rock — and some regular sculpting with rock and painting, a little bit later than the rocks.
When did you work at Tech?
Perx: I worked at Tech from ’79 until about 10 years ago. …I worked in the photo lab … a lot of technical in-house stuff, but I’d also go out and do shoots for this department or that department — mostly wildlife. … I guess I just burned out on it.
Do you paint drip-style?
Perx: I do a good bit of that. I tend not to use brushes hardly at all. Mostly I use long, skinny, narrow spatulas. Palette knives I use once in a while and a lot of blades — razor blades, long scraper blades. … And once in a while I use something in a drill, something that will spin and give me a certain set of patterns … usually something flexible … something that’s got a consistent pattern to it to begin with that you might be able to work into a painting or use as a base for a painting, like the initial texture.
Throughout the years, have there been high points — good and bad points — artistically, but also high points in being able to make a living as an artist?
Perx: Once I started doing rocks full-time, after I left Tech, I actually started making reasonable money doing that for a while. But the style of art I was doing then was something that other markets, like Chinese markets, have picked up, and they do basically the same sort of stuff I do but for a lot less money. The biggest thing about doing stone sculptures or sandblasting or photography or anything, whatever project I’m working on now usually leads me into the next thing. … Photography led me into the rocks — I don’t know how, but it did. The rocks led me into painting, and I imagine in another two or three years I’ll start doing some other form. Maybe more sculptures. I do sculptures once in a while, not too often. There’s always some point where something clicks with what I’m doing with one process, where I say, "Let’s try it in some other form, in metal or in stone or in wood."
