Dave Lefner
Born into the sunny optimism of Southern California, I developed a true love of the Left Coast at an early age. The distinct architecture, urban landscape, and the car culture of the West soon became my main inspiration as my life as an artist began to blossom. Today, it’s on road trips from the city to the beaches, to the mountains or the desert, and back again to my loft in Downtown LA, where I find my Muse.
More intrigued by a mid-century modern vision of the world than the present, homogenized, pixilated landscape, I search for the beauty of a time gone by… Too young to have experienced this Golden Age firsthand, I daydream myself into a slower-paced, nostalgic America, where craftsmanship, talent, and design all come together. Pulling my images from still-existing gems, like vintage motels or mom&pop shops with neon signs in an ultra-cool font or classic cars which seem to have been designed with the hope of maybe going to the moon one day, I try to document and preserve this lifestyle. Even my chosen medium of reduction linocut (innovated by Picasso in the 50s), is a tip-of-the-hat to artisans and a lost art form. It is my hope that we never forget….