PART 4: Exclusive Interview with Dave Vescio – Art, Money & Future

After a much-anticipated hiatus, The World Art News is delighted to welcome back the captivating award-winning artist and actor, Dave Vescio. Known for his thought-provoking insights and profound reflections, Dave returns to grace our exclusive interviews with his signature blend of philosophy and deep introspection.

In this installment, he candidly unveils his journey as a contemporary artist and photographer, offering invaluable insights into his distinctive methodology. Beyond the realm of artistry, Dave delves into addressing not only artistic and emotional challenges but also navigating the complex landscape of global issues that confront us all.

“When the world zigs, I zag.”

Since our last interview, what major developments have taken place in your art career?

I realized after researching all the Top 200 juried art shows in the United States that I needed a cohesive body of work for my applications to these shows. So, in the past year, I’ve really focused on getting my artist website and my artworks ready to do these juried art shows. When I first started to create artworks with a still camera in 2020, I was just focusing on creating artworks.

Then it slowly became a different series, then different collections, and for the past year, I have mostly put them into two different cohesive bodies of work: abstract portraits and nature. I do believe my abstract portrait body of work is ready to compete in the juried art shows for this upcoming year. But my nature body of work is not ready just yet. I may need another year or two or three to complete that.

“I believe my abstract portrait body of work is ready.”

So, that’s what I have mostly focused on this past year. Because I do hear most mid-career artists create a new body of work once every three to four years, and that’s about how long it took me to create a solid body of work for my abstract portraits. My nature ones are just taking longer, because it’s not my primary focus for creating art. It’s secondary.

I’ve also started to compete (once again) in the Top 7 photography contests in the world that has an abstract category. The new competition season began this past March; and as you know, I’ve won 16 awards from these Top 7 photography contests in the first two years that I competed in them. I’m hoping to win at least 7 more awards this coming season. I’m also creating a new series of abstract portraits. So, we will see if it becomes a new way of doing abstract portraits for myself or will it just end up being a new collection instead? We will see…

These past few years have been intense for everyone. As an individual, what life lessons have you learned, and what new understandings have you discovered for yourself?

When I was doing performance art for the world-famous contemporary artist Paul McCarthy in two of his immersive video projects (CSSC & DADDA) I remember Paul once told me that I should go out into the wilderness all by myself and I will understand art better. So, during the beginning of the Covid lockdowns, I decided to take a trip into the wilderness all by myself for my 50^th birthday in June of 2020.

That’s when I started to create fine-art photographs of nature with a still camera and that’s when my journey into the soul and spirit of this planet truly began. And once I started to create abstract portraits in October 2020 that’s when I started to study the original creators of abstract art. The ancient humans who originally created petroglyphs and cave paintings, and I’ve studied a lot of them in person in their natural surroundings in the American southwest.

“We are Earth and Earth is us.”

I’ve literally seen ancient petroglyphs that are 10,000 years old and ancient architecture that is 12,000 years old in the American southeast. Then that got me to start studying the hominids (whom we humans have evolved from over time) who were the first to make geometrical markings on cave walls way before homo sapiens ever existed, but, whom we most learned from. So, the moral of the story is the more you study where we modern humans came from, the more you will understand that we are Earth and Earth is us.

It’s all tied together as one. Earth created us and we will go back into the Earth when we die. We cannot exist without this planet. This planet is us. I also agree with the famous philosopher Joseph Campbell. The future religion will be when all humans finally realize we are all the same (because we all evolved from the same exact spot in Africa) and our religious symbol will be this planet called Earth and that’s when humans will truly know peace in this world.

“We cannot exist without this planet.”

Until then we will continue to discard everything from where we truly came from because we will continue to believe in these religions that took place in an agriculture time period, and not accept who we really are instead – hominids who have constantly evolved into something else through time.

So, that’s what I’ve learned over these past few years and will continue to study for years to come. We are a very long lineage of constant discovery and it’s our purpose to keep on discovering and to keep on connecting our self to this planet and to this Universe and to where it originally came from. Without it we perish away. So, take care of our planet the best that you can and start loving your neighbor as yourself. We are all as one!!!

“Start loving your neighbor as yourself.”

In a world often overshadowed by negativity, how do you personally cope with it all?

By allowing myself to truly see the world for what it is and to then ‘re-create myself’ into something new and different. Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” So, I’ve literally accepted the world that we are currently living in.

And it’s time for me to pivot into a new reality that I can control again. When the world zigs, I zag. I always have. And I’m slowly zagging away from everything I know of and throwing myself off the cliff into the unknown once again. By having faith and believing in myself, and hoping to find others who see the same ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ that I currently see…

“I’ve literally accepted the world that we are currently living in.”

PART 6: Exclusive Interview with Dave Vescio – Antisocial Media

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