Biography and Influences
In 1992, David Stelle earned his Masters degree
in Landscape Architecture at the University of
Oregon. During that time, he learned about
perception and art from faculty members
Kenneth Helphand and Jerome Diethelm. In a
class taught by the latter that related art with
landscape architecture, Stelle was the only one
to propose his own work to be analyzed. This
piece consisted of a long (8 ft) narrow (1/8 x
1/2 in) strip of red plastic he suspended in a
tree vertically. Between the positive reaction
of the entire class and the powerful experience
of watching this "Vertical Red Line" fluttering
and swaying in the breeze, he saw a real
possibility of a promising career as sculptor in
its most pure and abstract style.
In 1998, Stelle moved from Oregon to New
Mexico, commiting himself to abstract
sculpture for the rest of his life.
Although his current work is a result of many
years of general inclusion of art in all his
endeavors, the particular materials and
construction you see came about only within
the past 5 years while maintaining a studio at
the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque.
Last year (2004) Stelle moved to San Jose
California where his work and career continue
to develop and where his home studio forms a
new base for art markets in San Francisco, Los
Angeles, all of the U.S. and, eventually, all
over the world.
Childhood Influences
Growing up in Dover, Mass. just west of Boston where Stelle loved all winter sports, his earliest influences
include Dr. Seuss, jigsaw puzzles, design of many board games and card games, building of many ship models
and a fascination with string, pulleys and suspending things from the ceiling. Many hours spent drawing with
pencil instilled an appreciation of light and shadow. Additionally, Stelle says that for several years in late
childhood, he wielded a super-8 movie camera he used to perform exercises in visual trickery, stop-action,
claymation and pixilation gaining a strong sense of developing the whole out of slowly varying individual
frames.
It was during high school that he discovered Frank Stella, his favorite contemporary artist. Although it began
simply by choosing an artist with a name similar to his own, this well-known artist proved to be a profound
influence. He felt a particular fascination for Stella's early works consisting of simple geometric arrangements
of black and white stripes. But the work of Stella's subsequent phase in which geometric forms interpierced
each other also provided inspiration.
Influences During Young Adulthood
In 1978, Stelle earned a degree in Mathematics from Windham College in Putney, Vermont after 4 years of
classes emphasizing math, art and theatre. These classes brought about an interest in layering, suspended
forms, modularity, precision and engineering (Buckminster Fuller), perception (M.C.Esher), light and other
concepts essential to the style of abstract art you see in this website. It was then that Stelle began to realize
a fascination with the concept of free-style geometry, the process of imagining forms in space that, at least
hypothetically, could be described using mathematical formulae. Stelle carries a deep appreciation for the
teaching he experienced during this time period of Marja Vallila (see also…), Peter Forakis and his math
teachers, Stan Zielinski, Robert Lewand and Pao-sheng Hsu.
In a class taught by Forakis, he was exposed to Buckminster Fuller and the combining of form and structure
while seeing the value of math and engineering applied to art. In theatre, he enjoyed stage design, set
construction and lighting.
With the freedom to express himself in this way, his love for the purety and simplicity of geometry grew
and would never wane . Throughout several years in which he worked in software development, he
maintained a hobby of creating abstract geometric forms, sometimes small using cardboard, sometimes large
in painted plywood.
Knowledge of computer programming and graphics in the form of games, GIS and CAD also had an
influence. Even music has played a role through improvisational piano-playing while enjoying rhythm, dance
and expressions of repetition and emotional energy.