David byrd artist sydney center ny
David Byrd: Bad jobs can produce very good pictures.
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David Byrd was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1926. His father, who suffered from mental illness, left the family when David was a young child. When David was twelve, his mother was forced by economic hardship to abandon him and his five siblings to foster homes.
During the next four years, the children lived in three foster homes.
David byrd artist sydney center ny
A number of David’s paintings document this period of upheaval in his life.
In 1942, David’s mother gathered her children back to her. Working as a ticket seller at a movie theater in Brooklyn, New York, she could barely support them.
David had shown artistic ability from an early age, but she was forever worried about money and pressured him to find suitable employment rather than pursue his artistic side.
At seventeen, he joined the Merchant Marines and traveled through Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia before being drafted into the U.S.
Army as an artillerist. During this time—World War II—he filled sketchbooks with maritime-themed drawings, and