When I first moved to Toronto, I lived in a huge party house in midtown. It was a lot of fun. Almost too much fun. It was there, that I decided to devote my life to art.
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ABOVE: David McDonough, Nausea, mixed media, 16 x 20 x 1 inches (one of my earliest surviving artworks)
When I first moved to Toronto, I lived in a huge party house in midtown. It was a lot of fun. Almost too much fun.
Despite declaring war on my brain cells, it wasn’t a total wash. It was there, that I decided to devote my life to art.
My first works were acrylic on canvas, and they were awful. I produced about four, then decided to experiment with other materials.
I tried my hand at just about everything, but the results were always the same – awful.
Finally, almost by accident, I discovered glass. I had a broken picture frame and on a whim, I decided to paint it. I loved the vibrancy it lent the colors.
Over the next two years, I worked almost exclusively with glass. My subject matter was all over the place, and I’d yet to develop a unique style, but I did improve, and I knew I was onto something.
Eventually, everyone went their separate ways, and I moved into my own place.
While I was still a ways away from being able to produce what I do today, the years I spent in that party house set the foundation for my artistic practice.