Deep Springs College Collection

Teaching Residency 2003 and 2007

 
In the stark beauty of a remote valley the evening shadows of the Sierra Nevada Range lies tiny Deep Springs College. Here, some of the nation’s most promising college students prepare to become leaders in the service of humanity. Through a comprehensive educational program involving study, labor, and self-governance, students gain the insight, skill, and self-confidence to forge a more just and humane world. Alumni have served as United States ambassadors, leaders of international relief organizations, doctors and nurses, members of Congress, presidents of universities, dairy farmers, MacArthur Fellows, members of the National Academy of Science, and as federal judges.
 
The most beneficent force on earth is a genuinely free individual who is committed to the common good. What a surprise to find a painter who can translate such principles through his art. Because of David’s intense communion with the landscape, his insistence on working plein aire and engaging with the land, and because his abiding personal quest for a truer, more genuine response to what he sees, his work captures the spirit of a pioneering ethos. There is adcenture on the moment of beholding and this is a truth David communicated again and again to those lucky students who painted with him. The essence of this institution has been rendered through art, a marvelous prompt for those of us who find inspiration in the mission of Deep Springs College.
 
L. Jackson Newell
President Emeritus, Professor