By John Sandlos
Lives Lived column, The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, Oct 10, 2001

Visual artist, professor, much loved son, brother, uncle, and friend.

Born August 10, 1950 in Willowdale, Ontario. Murdered in Toronto, January 18, 2001, aged 50.

There was little in my uncle David's childhood to suggest the innovative painter and charismatic professor that he became in later years. He wasn't interested in school; summer camp was torture. He used to rub snow in his face when sent outside to play so he would have the requisite rosy cheeks his mother insisted upon before allowing him back inside, where he could retreat into the world of I Love Lucy.

He was captivated by drawing and painting from his early teens. A pencil drawing that now hangs on my wall, completed when Dave was only seventeen, shows a young Bob Dylan slyly winking at the viewer, the singer's last name spilling across the page in bright psychedelic colours. Uncle Dave was a 60's hipster; I remember the long wavy hair and bell bottoms he wore when I was very young, and the vastness of his canvasses from my perspective much closer to the ground. I'm taller now, but the paintings that hang in my apartment still seem immense.

David went to the Ontario College of Art from 1969 to 1973, but his career did not really take shape until a group show at the Pollock Gallery in 1979 and solo shows in 1980 and 1981. The paintings from this period are difficult and uncompromising; large, dramatic abstracts overlap regular patterns of lines or shapes with bursting swirls of colour.

A sojourn in Paris and the completion of an MFA at Concordia in 1985 inspired further growth and change in David's work. He began to experiment with three dimensional shapes in a series of oil on paper paintings, and with layering and stratification of colour and texture in his larger canvasses. Meanwhile, he pursued a parallel teaching career, taking part-time teaching appointments at McGill University, Central Technical School, and the AGO. In 1985, he was appointed to a full-time position in the studio program in the University of Toronto Department of Fine Arts studio program.

For him, teaching was inspiration, not obligation. His students gave him exceptional reviews, and it soon became difficult to get into his courses. He was instrumental in developing an innovative interdisciplinary Masters Program in Visual Studies (scheduled to open at the U of T in the Fall of 2002).

Although his teaching schedule was demanding, he remained a prolific artist until his death. Exposure to the creative energy of young artists in classes on postmodernism and the politics of visual culture led to a fertile experimental phase: He began to explore aspects of gay male sexuality, painting on photo portraits of nude males or including photo collages within smaller abstract canvasses. The introduction of phrases such as "grains of truth" or "view on monogamy" reveal a more overt political stance, matched in his personal life through his support of AIDS research and activism.

Toronto's Gay Pride Parade was, for Dave, Christmas in June. The last painting he completed includes the words "history counsels patience,' a quote from the poet W.H. Auden who denounced the Nazi persecution of homosexuals.

An intensely serious artist and teacher, David had an irreverent wit. Glass of scotch in hand, he'd recall the time at the height of his starving artist days when he "borrowed" twenty dollars from the collection plate at the baptism of a friend's child.

My uncle was found stabbed to death in his office last January. His death has profoundly shaken his family and close friends. He is much loved and sorely missed.

Cheers to you,

David.