David Bratzel
In 1979, when I left the University of Iowa for the scenic wilds of North East Iowa, I was a disillusioned student. I had been trained in the esthetic then current in the arts, and I tried to assimilate the esthetic into my work. I had been trying for several years to make Art, and somehow even the effort seemed hollow. In an uncharicteristic extremist act, I cut myself off from the ideas and approaches that I had been learning and started over. I worked as if I was starting to draw and paint, and began anew. It was an adventure that has led me a merry chase.

When I had first come back to Iowa, after an absense of several years, I had been surprised by an intense emotional reaction to the landscape that I hadn't even realized that I had missed. Working in the countryside of Allamakee and Winneshiek counties, I found this same reaction to the reality and creation around me. I found places and sights that reached out and grabbed my attention.

The represented a truth that I had sometimes only dimly realized was important to me. This then has become my artistic credo. I draw and pain the things that grab me. If if doesn't grab me, I don't paint it. I try to get ahold of that which gets ahold of me, and convey that connection to the viewer. I haven't tried to make "art" in years, I am too busy investigating the visual feast that I am priviliged to observe all around me. It is a hollow thing for an artist to try to be original. All that is really necessary is for the artist to simply tell the truth, in the most direct way that he can, and is work will be truly original.

David Bratzel was born in Maryland, but grew up in Iowa. He has had a life long involvement with the arts, winning many student competitions and awards in elementary and secondary school. He spent 7 years studying art with Ray Frederick, a noted Iowa artist who was a student of Grand Wood at the Stone City workshop. He considers the time he studied with Ray one of the biggest influences on his art, He studied at Marshalltown Community College, and the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He singled out the teachrs, Joe Patrick and Stuart Edie as having a particular importance to him in his training.

His work has been displayed in many Art Centres in Iowa and in competitive shows like the Iowa Artist's Show, North East Iowa Artists Show in Cedar Falls. His prints were included in a show of American Printmakers in Scandinavia in the 70's. His work has also been selected for purchase in the arts in the Architechture program and are on display in State Buildings in Iowa. His work has been displayed in the Capital Rotunda, and in innumerable cultural centers throughout Iowa. His One Man shows include Luther College, Marshalltown Community College, Fisher Community Center in Marshalltown, the Iowa State Fair where he was also Artist in Residence in 1980. Recently his work has been included in shows sponsered by the Minnesota Watercolor Society.

David was active in the "Artist's in the Schools" program sponsored by the Iowa Arts Council for several years and worked for the Arts Council for two years in the 70's doing Arts Programs for special populations. His pastel portraits of residences of Care Facilites, done during this period, became a traveling show sponsored by the Arts Council through out the state.

In 1981, David left Iowa and moved to St. Paul, becoming part of a religious community, since that time he has been teaching elementary and secondary art in the community's school program.