DANTE'S PAINTINGS
Dante: Works on Paper by David Deighton
The Origins of the Dante Painting Series
Dante is the nom d’artiste of David Deighton for his works on paper—a practice spanning more than two decades. The origins lie in travel: early paintings created on the road, later evolving into a body of work exhibited and sold through a gallery dedicated to original, one-of-a-kind pieces.
Dante Alighieri and Artistic Influence
The name draws from Dante Alighieri, echoing a sustained interest in layered inner worlds and human expression.
Abstract Figurative Paintings on Paper
Materials and Mixed Media Process
Each work is created on paper using natural dyes, watercolor, ink, and acrylic.
Visages: Faces Emerging Through Abstraction
The imagery moves through abstracted natural forms, often converging into faces—Visages—that emerge and dissolve within the composition.
Cultural Identity and Contemporary Expression
American and French Influences in the Work
Deighton’s cultural identity—American by birth, French by heritage—runs quietly through the work, informing both language and sensibility.
Human Presence and Emotional Interpretation
To live with a Dante is to engage with shifting faces, layered surfaces, and the many expressions of human presence.
Related Conceptual Art Practices
Charlie Dott and Found Material Works
Alongside this body of work, Deighton has also created under the name Charlie Dott, producing conceptual pieces on music rolls, computer paper, and other found or vintage supports, often incorporating collage and mixed media. These material-based explorations later evolved into the portable assemblages and participatory structures of Triptych In Vivo.
Parallel Explorations in Mixed Media Art
These related works expand Deighton’s broader exploration of material experimentation, layered imagery, and contemporary visual language.
Related Projects:
Bouncing Balls
An experimental short film using projected silicone balls, abstraction, sound, and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave to explore perception, illusion, and mediated reality.
Smash Art
Explore participatory artworks where language, abstraction, image, and public contribution collide through fragmented visual processes.
Diving with Plato video
An experimental short film exploring cave diving, perception, alternative realities, and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave through immersive underwater environments and philosophical reflection.
Light From a Fire video
An experimental projection work inspired by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, exploring illusion, perception, disinformation, and the unstable boundaries between truth and constructed reality.