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Don Simpson – Finding the Voice of the Material

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On March 21st, Don will be speaking on ways the experiences of his life have shaped his artistic vision and capabilities. He will discuss his philosophy of design and construction; including the various materials and sets of tools he has used.

Don will have slides of past and current work and many of his tools. He will display a selection of my current works, and will be describing the methods used in creating the works.  


Don Simpson’s Bio:

Don was born between world wars to parents who had moved from small midwestern farms to California in search of opportunity. I grew up in a dozen small towns and isolated places, and love wilderness and silences, plants and animals, natural materials and found objects. But Don loves anything beautiful; whether natural or made; buildings, machines, every kind of art. Before even starting school, he was taught to read, to use tools, and to never let anything useful go to waste. And from that, he believes, came his seeing, in things, what they might become, and how they might get there. And his favorite reading became the literature of the imagination, myth and legend, fantasy and science fiction. Don wanted to know how everything worked, so his second love was science, theoretical and practical. These were the foundations of his artistic vision.

For most of his life, Don has been making art using various methods and media, though through the larger part of those years it was done in his spare time, which was often scarce. Don went to art school after his active military service, but then spent decades helping design various mechanical and electronic devices, including the first digital-output computer mice and an experimental “virtual reality” computer interface; very demanding work. Don was the assistant project manager on Spectrum Holobyte’s Star Trek – The Next Generation computer game, A Final Unity. However, he was still selling his art and getting occasional awards and commissions. Don had one-man shows at Dream Masters Gallery in Los Angeles and at Earthlight Gallery in Boston, and built an alien space-probe for the National Air and Space Museum’s Life in the Universe Hall (“Certainly the best part of the exhibit, and the one requiring the greatest imagination to develop” — Spaceflight magazine). Currently, Don is doing some computer graphics and digital fonts, and making plans for electronic sculpture, but mostly working on small carved pendants in natural materials such as wood, amber, jet, and antler, which provides a balance to the immateriality of computer work.

Speaker: Don Simpson

When: March 21, 2023, 7:00 pm PST

Where: This meeting will be a hybrid meeting. In person at Albany Community Center,  1249 Marin Avenue, Albany, CA. Map .

And via Zoom. Please RSVP to JudySinclair@beadsocietyofnorcal.org to receive the Zoom invitation.  A reminder will be sent out a few days before the event.

Everyone is welcome to join this event. It is free to paid members, or $5 to access this meeting only. To pay the $5, please contact JudySinclair@beadsocietyofnorcal.org. To become a member, apply here.

26 thoughts on “Don Simpson – Finding the Voice of the Material”

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