Dave Stevens - Born July 29, 1955 - Died March 10, 2008.

My Naked Dave series has been a way for me to work out the anger, grief, and loss that this relationship brought me. I was only 18 when I met Dave. I was not too much older than that when he fathered my child in 1978. The cruel and heartless way he dealt with me during my pregnancy was inexcusable. When I lost the baby through miscarriage, the physical and emotional pain I went through was unbearable. I have been dealing with the effects this loss has had on me all my adult life. I never bore another child. The whole situation made me despondent and depressed for many years. Dave helped me through none of this. Just knowing this person almost killed me.

In 1991, just as I was coming to a place of recovery, Dave began seeking me out again. He held out the possibility to me that we could reconcile and "carry on in a more positive light", as he put it. Then he cold-heartedly "set me up" for an emotional ambush and cruelly withdrew once the damage was once again done. I felt betrayed and abandoned for the second time and I had to do something to save myself. It wasn't what happened in 1978 that inspired the series. We were young and stupid and that can be forgiven. No, it was the failed "reconciliation" of 1991 that lit the fire. I did what I had to do to save myself. I couldn't walk the earth with murderous rage in my bosom and let it destroy everything around me. Naked Dave originally began as a way I could cathartically extract the emotional toxins this man brought into my life. It ended by becoming an entire genre of my life's work, one that has brought me much praise and recognition.

For many years I assumed that Dave was merely annoyed by my paintings of him but I was wrong. In recent years I found out that he was deeply affected by what I had done. The only friend we still have in common beseeched me in an email to forgive him, but I found it impossible for me to do so without a face to face reconciliation. I offered Dave that chance in 2005, but he turned me away. Now that Dave is dead, a face to face forgiveness and reconciliation between us will never happen. I will have to live with this reality and move on when I am able to do so.

The issues Dave brought to my life and my ability to process them through my art inspires me. When that changes, my art will change. To aspire to make great art one must know truth, beauty and love. My muse, as unwilling a subject as he may have been, was a muse nonetheless. The English Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti had a muse, Elizabeth Siddal. A recent book about her life has the following quotation from John Ruskin which took my breath away with it's truth: "And yet Elizabeth had been loved tenderly, loved by the man and by the artist, which is to be loved twice, because painters have a tenderness for the creature that suddenly realizes for them, in an exquisite and living form, a long cherished dream, and lavish upon her a gaze that is more thoughtful, more intuitive and, to put it plainly, more charged with love than is possible for other men."

Below is a study for the last painting of the Naked Dave series. I have known since February of 2005 that Dave was ill with cancer. I was sworn to secrecy and struggled with thoughts of discontinuing the series altogether for this reason but the heart sees what the conscious mind can't bear to know. The monarchs are in the painting because the Aztecs believed they carried the souls of the dead. I started this latest painting in July 2005. I will continue to paint Dave until I am done and I can bring peace to myself.

Laura Molina
March 12, 2008

Comment on this statement can be left on The New Inspirational Movement blog

In the last nine years a lot of people who have come to this web site and even some who have only seen the actual paintings have had emotional responses to Naked Dave.

At the end of 1999, I was contacted by Laura E. Perez. Assistant professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, who used slides of my paintings (including Naked Dave) in a course she was teaching on "The uses of blood, spirituality and the human heart in art".   Some comments on this web site from the Professor: "I thought that "Naked Dave, a Woman's Obsession" Is positively insane in a way that I can understand. (but) I do not literally think that Naked Dave is insane but I did want to communicate that I think it works. Itis "insane" in the sense that "normal" people are supposed to let bygones be bygones etc. What I think is terrific about the site is that it refuses to do this, to pretend that past relationships, past pain should go quietly into the night. As a viewer, and particularly as a woman, I see Naked Dave as a kind of exposé, and I feel emotional vindication and an identification with the will to not let the past drop "politely," given that it is these ideas of propriety that are actually psychologically abnormal. The Greek statue and block of his printed name feel like a tombstone to me, and the whole site like a grief ritual. The insanity of your site is socially on target. It works especially well as art , in my view. Naked Dave is original, I've never seen anything like it".

"The 'Naked Dave' suite (it should be a symphony or something) transcends gender, race or planetary considerations. It's the big-ass cry of sentient beings"

Aviation Artist Robert Karr - October 2001

Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005
From: Daniel Hicks
Subject: A bit of thanks...

My name is Daniel Hicks, and I am absolutely charmed by your "Naked Dave" story and art work.

After viewing his work, it ignited a little anger in me as well. The idea of the objectification he promotes and obviously indulges in is repulsive, but to see his negative energy returned to him as a beautifully revelatory and positive force is a justice that is wonderful to marvel at. He is clearly a man defined entirely by his own work as desiring only to confuse woman with vamp. And for this I am so incredibly happy that you have returned his horrible portrayal of the feminine form (entirely lacking substance) with positivity and artistic beauty.

You are an absolute champion. I am unsure of how great humanity could be if we all could instinctually return disrespect and miserable treatment with an honest expression of feelings and indifference to negative attitudes.

You have my respect and appreciation.

Daniel Hicks.

July 3, 2003:

Thought I'd drop you a quick line and say how much I enjoyed your paintings (and the Naked Dave stuff too, naturally). Seems like a lot of people are getting really upset about it, with the notable exception of you and Dave.

Weird.

It seems fairly clear to me that Dave (naked or otherwise) is an obsession for you, but only in the same way that cypress trees were an obsession for Van Gogh or horses were an obsession for Da Vinci. Every artist has personal obsessions which they work and rework endlessly. I say, if you find something strong that keeps your work flowing, grab it and wring it out.

Nice one.

d.

Dec. 23, 2004
Subject: my take on the dave bit

I suppose I can only interpret your situation through the lens of my experiences. I had a breakup where I WAS creepy and obsessive. I could not come to grips with the fact that my partner did not see things the way I did and the world refused to fit with my worldview. Telling me to 'get over it' was like saying 'pretend it never happened'. My liberating realization was that my feelings could simply exist without implying any reflection of that fact.

The absence of a social relationship between two people does not require a surrendering of shared experiences. If I were to speak it, I would say-

"My memories of you are mine.
My feelings for you are mine.
My feelings about you are mine.
Our time together is part of me.
My understanding of you is part of me. You cannot deny me the understanding and exploration of these parts of myself.
They are mine to interpret, accept, reject or spin how I see fit."

It seems as if you have taken an unusual situation from your life and used it as a catalyst to explore various other ideas and concepts. If it leads to greater wisdom, so much the better.

" Art is basically a gift you’re presenting to people and hoping they’ll respond well to it" .

Dave Stevens, 2003

"Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self." – Kahlil Gibran