David Barthold

I’m a native New Yorker and I teach Dental Technology at Clara Barton High School in Crown Heights.  I have a studio and am a member of the creative community at Gowanus Studio Space on 7th Street in Brooklyn.  

In the course of my life I’ve worked as a printer, legal secretary, carpenter, cabinet maker, mold maker, dental technician and teacher.  As a young person I attended schools where I was taught to set type, etch, engrave, work with sheet metal, and run a printing press.  

My mother came from a line of women who knew how to sew, knit, hook a rug, cane a chair, paint, and hang wallpaper.  I knew uncles and fathers who could build houses, as well as make wooden toys for children. 

So much of what we see and use in this world was made by people working with their hands, often with love and great skill, and I try to bring a love of making things into my work.  I look at the hand painted signs, cast iron newel posts, ironwork, graffiti, and carved stonework that is still found in abundance around Brooklyn, and I wrestle the energy I take from seeing those things into making works of art.  The energy comes from everywhere but the work stands for nothing but itself.  

Whether it be with metal, wood, paper or paint, I am singing the song I was taught by the elders, and by the very houses I’ve lived in, and I invite you to sing along.

You can find his work at https://www.davidbarthold.net/

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