by John Bach

"I don't have to walk more than a hundred steps from my door, and I see things that you might have to drive considerable distances for in less dense environments. I've kind of condensed the American cultural phenomenon of the last half of the 20th century into the world outside my studio."

As compelling as that world can be, it is also one he needs to escape. FeBland and wife, Lynda Mandlawitz, A&S '70, who met at UC, travel Europe by tandem bicycle for nearly two months every summer -- a ritual they have followed since 1984.

"We will fly into one city and fly out of another city, and usually they are 100 miles apart," he says. "We only travel by bicycle. We are the space shuttle when we go through some of those towns. They have never seen anything like it."

He brings a sketchbook to keep up on his work, and sometimes what he observes overseas comes to life on canvas. Traveling abroad, FeBland says, gives him perspective, allowing him to inhabit the role his subjects normally inhabit -- the outsider.

"I feel very refreshed at the end of the summer when I come back. I'm usually busting with new ideas. If I don't start working immediately, it vanishes in the visual cacophony of daily living in New York City."

David FeBland gives ample credit to his UC years for helping him to develop his artistic expression. "The way I found myself looking at the world developed very early. For me, my view of the world was pretty much formed by the time I was in my early 20s at UC. It took me another 20 years to find and master the visual language, the language to represent it pictorially."

While at UC, FeBland became interested in the way architecture influenced people's lives. He went on to get a degree in landscape architecture and worked for most of his career as a free-lance illustrator.

In 1990, he rented a studio space and began creating an entirely different type of work -- urban paintings. Ten years later, the change has more than paid off.

"It was a full five and a half years of just learning to experiment and dipping my toe in the water creatively until I felt I had enough of a body of work to show it to anybody," he explains. "I didn't want to go out there half-baked. I wanted to work on my craft. I was developing what it was I had to say and my artistic language."

FeBland connects with subjects who likely will never see his work, or the inside of a gallery for that matter. That was not, however, a cognizant decision.

"At first I was experimenting, and I was grasping, and nothing cohesive was coming on. I was searching for voice. Then I found myself, thematically, going back to certain subjects again and again. The passion made me. I didn't consciously go out to do any of this. I just realized one day that I was working in this area."

He submitted his work to his first show in 1996. "I was very lucky," Febland said. "I got in, I won a prize, and I got some press. That sort of got the ball rolling. That emboldened me to submit work to additional shows. I have been in about 60 shows since then."

Today, it isn't uncommon to find FeBland's paintings for sale for thousands of dollars. Each starts with an idea, an image or an inspiration -- sometimes right after a flat tire.

Links:

David FeBland's Web site

FeBland on artnet

FeBland on Ask ART