David Lain has always had an interest in more primitive types of art and sculpture. Growing up in an area of Texas that is a fossil bed, David spent his childhood collecting fossils and interesting stones. These influences led him to earn a degree in anthropology and become a self-taught stone sculptor. David creates sculptures that tend to reach out and grab the viewer. His works give the effect that an image is emerging from the rock. These images represent living things like fish, flowers and animals. He carves these images into stones that most artists don't use for sculpture--Tennessee and Texas limestone, Arizona sandstone, and a northern stone called Pennsylvania blue. He finds the limestone himself, usually on river banks. David uses the natural shape and "skin" of the stone to sculpt the image, and leaves as much natural stone as possible around the carved image. Some of his sculptures are freestanding while others become functional art, such as tables. His works are well crafted and artistic expressions of nature.
Each sculpture starts with "rough-out" carving. This is the process of putting the general shape of the image into the stone. David sketches a design directly onto the stone with a carpenter's pencil and starts cutting away from it with a diamond wheel on an angle grinder. A large stone chisel is also used to remove large pieces of unwanted stone. When the rough image is cut into the rock, he uses smaller chisels and a die grinder, with a cone-shaped grinding stone, to start carving detail into the image. He uses steel rasps and a grinding wheel to smooth the rough edges out of the image. Then he uses a sandblaster and sandpaper. To achieve a high polish, David uses a cotton buffing wheel and a buffing compound containing a mild abrasive. Steel table bases are made with mild steel, cut with a chop saw a plasma cutting torch. They are built to fit each individual piece. He uses a wire feed welder to weld the bases together and cleans up the welds with an angle grinder and hand files. The bases are painted with a hammered finish black metal spray paint or a flat black brush-on metal paint. The tabletops are then secured to the bases with bolts and concrete anchors. David's sculptures do not need an explanation. They are archetypical images that people can relate to. They are a straightforward reflection of his passion and respect for life, as well as the life that came before him.
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