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David Stahl (left) and
Edward Ball from Ball State
University (right) holding The Explorers Club Flag
in the "Ibis Gallery" North Cape York, Australia.
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At eighteen Stahl's career in photography began
when his first article was published in Surfer Magazine. The next
40 years as a magazine photographer gave assignments all over
the world and provided the opportunity to revisit important art
museums. He eventually became a contributing photographer for
Surfing Magazine and Tracks in Australia.
Stahl's photographic work has been published in
many publications from National Geographic and Australian Vogue
to Outside, Yachting, Power and Motoryacht, Smithsonian, Discovery,
to name a few and for the Jerusalem Post during the Yom Kippur
War. Books include Australia, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Mexico
along with a chapter in a language text by Random House for the
West Point Military Academy and a monthly travel column in Outdoor
Life Magazine titled "The Frugal Fisherman."
Besides his usual photographic work Stahl in 1981 was offered
an assignment from The Australian Tourist Commission and Cullen
& Taylor in New York to photograph and write about Australia.
This assignment lasted six months and covered nearly all of the
continent. A year later he returned to Australia to co-produce,
write and co-direct an hour documentary on the ancient aboriginal
cave paintings in the Cape York Peninsula for Ball State University.
That expedition was awarded the prestigious Explorers Club flag
of New York City - the same flag carried to the top of Mt. Everest
by Hillary and Tensing and aboard the first mission to the moon.
The documentary; "Art of the Dreamtime - Quinkan Country"
aired twice on PBS and the sound track created by musician Steve
Roach became a popular record album.
His next expedition, sponsored by The New York State
Aquarium, was to document the declining reef system of the Cay
Sal Banks off the coast of Cuba. This program aired on the National
Geographic Channel. A feature article, "Who is Killing the
Reefs of Florida" 1999, written and photographed by Stahl
on the same subject was featured in Yachting Magazine and brought
national attention to the demise of coral reefs in south Florida.
In 2007 the self taught Stahl, after having accomplished
much in photography put aside his cameras except for his 8x10
film camera and turned exclusively to painting. Stahl's work is
found in the Chrysler Museum, The South Florida Museum, The Explorer's
Club of New York City, the embassies of Belize and Honduras and
in many private collections.
My artistic approach and view:
A painting or drawing must be conceived and created with an overwhelming,
positive feeling of confidence that the new work will be more
than just good; it will be great and the best that I've ever done.
I spend much time composing what I do in my mind
visualizing its ultimate look. And by doing this I become more
and more excited...a feeling essential before starting any picture.
Inspired is a commonly misused word and actually only half expresses
what is going on within my whole being.
Knowing how to think competently and sensitively is the most essential
part of art and by that I'm also including "feeling".
It is because of the lack of preliminary "pump priming"
that one sees so much bad painting. It's not bad technique, color,
brushwork, drawing...that's the easy part. It's bad thinking,
feeling, spirit and bad forms that are devoid of all significant
art spirit that makes for bad art.
Much of my art education came from my father who
was one of America's most famous painters and a great teacher.
He guided me on the right path rather than trying to mold me into
a clone of himself...something that teachers in art schools relentlessly
seem to do. Most all recognized painters through out history who
served time in schools wisely dropped out very quickly. The other
great ones simply began feverously drawing as children and never
stopped. This is why a measure of skepticism should be placed
on artists proudly presenting their university degrees in art
as a reason why their art should be taken seriously. Certainly
the elements of picture making can be taught and must be learned
but students of art should instead spend most of time in museums
and the rest of their time drawing. One cannot be taught talent...but
more important than talent is art spirit.
Apart from watching my father paint and visiting
museums were the family trips taken to the caves in Lescaux in
France and those in Altimira in Spain and many years later researching
and creating the documentary for Ball State University on ancient
aboriginal rock art in North Cape York, Australia which aired
twice on PBS. These journeys proved to me, what my father said,
that the art of painting, like Nature or man's psyche, and, unlike
his capacity for intellectual and scientific accomplishment, has
not improved over the centuries. Style has changed, implements
have changed, and the subject matter used by artists has been
anything but the same year after year. But quality? Quality of
painting hasn't changed a bit. The same is true of Nature. The
qualities she instills in her creations remain the same. Nature
has never found it necessary to improve on herself. And although
her 'look' has undergone countless revisions, the quality of that
'look' remains constant. She still produces trees and humans with
the same physical perfection of thousands of years ago and a human
brain as capable then as it is now.
So, quality in painting, as Nature, plus the urge which motivated
those ancient humans to paint hunting scenes as well as symbolic
figures on the walls of caves has remained unchanged throughout
the ages.
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