TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Local Artist Earns N.Y. Acclaim

Suncoast News photo by CHERYL BENTLEY

David Kastner sits with Green Tara, the Buddhist goddess of enlightened activity. Kastner uses many aspects, from his study of Buddhism to his knowledge of physics, in his art.

ADVERTISEMENT

By CHERYL BENTLEY

The Suncoast News

Published: July 23, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - "Visually stimulating," "intellectually satisfying" and "compelling." That's how Jill Smith described David Kastner's artwork in NY Arts magazine.

"These works transform color theory from the realm of mere physics, rendering it as something living, breathing and even spiritual," Smith wrote.

The subject of such praise is a New Port Richey artist whose work appeared at New York's ICO Gallery in the spring.

Kastner will have a one-man show at the gallery beginning Aug. 28 and his art will grace an upcoming cover of NY Arts, which has a monthly readership of 65,000, according to its Web site, www.nyartsmagazine.com.

No stranger to the international scene, Kastner has exhibits scheduled in Ferrara, Italy, and in Tokyo. Those follow shows in the National Museum and University of Fine Arts in Tianjin, China, and in the Tokyo Forum in Japan in late 2006.

Kastner credits those exhibits with creating momentum for his successes.

"The last two years, things have just skyrocketed," he said.

His latest work developed from what he calls "Liquid Expressions," his paintings of swirling colors. Some of the linear elements in those pieces evolved into geometric structures first of wood, then rope, then string and now thread.

Kastner suspends Japanese thread that can appear both transparent and opaque into wooden structures coated with sawdust. The threads change color, move, appear and disappear according to where the viewer is standing.

Science is never far from the mind of the artist, who as a teenager in Indiana had a private tutor in astrophysics because of his desire to learn more about the universe.

Every one of as many as 1,000 threads that make up a Kastner work are placed with physics in mind, such as the tendency of the human eye to see a new color when two shades are placed side by side, or to make some colors disappear when they're placed next to each other.

"These things are amazingly complicated in terms of engineering and building," Kastner said.

But art always takes precedence over science. At some point, the rational process falls into the background.

"Intuition is the magic part," Kastner said. "People who are most in tune to the intuitive process are the ones that create the most innovative work."

The man who can eloquently explain his art in minute detail is in the end awed by its mystery: "When creating, I stop thinking," said Kastner, a student of Buddhism.

Kastner estimates he spends a third of his time at exhibits. He enjoys the slower pace of New Port Richey, where he has lived for 20 years, to the manic motion of big cities where his work has been shown.

This summer he began teaching art at Pasco-Hernando Community College's New Port Richey campus and said he's committed to helping expand the west Pasco art community.

"Art is something for society as a whole," he said. "It rounds out the human experience."

FIND OUT MORE

For information on David Kastner's artwork, go to www.david kastner.com, call (727) 847-3995 or e-mail Info@DavidKastner.com.

Cheryl Bentley can be reached at cbentley@suncoastnews.com or (727) 815-1069.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT