BILL'S CYBERSPACE JOURNAL

THE ART OF MY BROTHER
EDWARD C. DAVIS

(1916-1981)

Ed. standing next to our mother and
father at their home in Julian, California

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Music is from "Pictures From An Exhibition" I mentioned below.

     My name is Bill Davis. I am using the method used by Modeste Moussorgsky in "Pictures From An Exhibition". He used the "Promenade" music as the stroller went from picture to picture. You could put on a CD of that music and do the same. The first picture in "Pictures" is a Gnome. I used a dwarf to start. There is a story connected with that which I will tell later.

     The story I mentioned above in connection with the dwarf happened in the following manner. Ed. was a student at the Cincinnati Art Museum and when a display of these figures, the works of Albrecht Durre, 1421-1528 (I think) came to the museum he wanted to copy some of them. He talked me into (clandestinely) coming late at night and I set up my camera and lights to photograph them in black and white and print them out so he had something to use to copy them. I am not sure the authorities would have condoned this but it was fun. The paintings are on a piece of oak about an inch thick. A number of these were displayed in the windows of a furniture-art store (Closson's) in Cincinnati back in the 40s.

     Ed. Loved to look at photos of famous art works and copy them in oil. One I remember was "The Laughing Cavalier" by Frans Hals. I don't know where that is but will show a copy of it I have. He did some of Goya and Mondrian also.

     Ed. Was a friendly and outgoing person who I greatly admired and was envious of. He heard Lily Pons sing an aria in the opera Lakme called "The Bell Song" and decided he wanted to meet her. He proceeded (deviously) to do so by crashing a Hollywood party in her honor.

    Ed was a gourmet and a master cook. He spent some time as a cook on a ship on an Oceanographic expedition in the Pacific. He traveled extensively both in Russia and Burma (during World War II). My brother was a sculptor also and I will display one of those works also.

Promenade

Promenade

Promenade

Promenade

Promenade

     The next five pictures contain some that I only have black and white photos of that I took while I was still working in that medium. The first two are cement sculptures done at a recreation place called Handlebar Ranch. Bike riding and hay rides and picnicking were provided here. This was run by Anna Ritter who was Ed.'s piano teacher. These pictures were taken last year and the figures are in pretty good condition. The third photo of Pots and Bottle I can only remember seeing but have no exact information on. The next picture is from the work of a French painter, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). It is a scene from Tahiti painted in 1891 and was in full color. The last picture is copied in full color from Franz Hals' works. Ed. was very good at this copying of the Masters' works. If I can dig up some more of his works I will show them later.

     Ed built his home in California from adobe bricks which he made himself. It was in Julian, Calif. and was in the form of a castle with battlements and a tower. It still exists although it has been many years since I saw it. The sun screen for his patio was a large copy of a Mondrian (help again!) painting . I keep remembering things this remarkable man did in his younger days!


    

  



  

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