In his new exhibition “From the Ashes,” David Safhay combines organic objects with inorganic structures, creating works that betray the artist’s fascination with the mechanisms of the natural world. Surging with wild color and defined by surgical precision, Safhay’s pieces honor the tactile traditions of painting and sculpture while also boldly exploring organic shapes, patterns, and symmetry. There is a playful chaos in his work, but also an overarching sense of knowledge, order, and reason. 

Safhay grew up in Peekskill, NY, where, at an early age, he was enchanted by color: “As long as I can remember, I was dazzled by prisms.” When Safhay’s mother took him to Woolworth’s, young David was mesmerized by the cascading spools of colored thread on display; once he even rearranged the spools because red was in the wrong place. “I would pass a gumball machine with these beautiful spheres of primary colors and I’d beg my mother for a penny and try and guess which color I was gonna get. So I was always intrigued by color.” 

Safhay said his identity as an artist was cast early on: “My parents were always very supportive–they said, ‘this kid’s an artist, why even fight it?’” His grandmother, who displayed David’s drawings on her “wall of fame” at her home in the Bronx, gave him eight silver dollars for his first set of watercolor paints. When he was 12, he gave his first show at Furnace Woods Elementary School and his picture made the front page of his local newspaper, the Peekskill Evening Star. 

A pivotal point in Safhay’s training occurred when his mother brought him to the Westchester Music and Arts Camp, where the Art Director Marvin Horowitz was overwhelmed with Safhay’s portfolio. As he inspected one piece, Horowitz said, “Whoa, this is very strong, the kid’s got a natural color sense and a verve, I think we can work with him.” Safhay’s mother said, “Well, you’re holding it upside down.” Horowitz replied, “If it reaches ya, it reaches ya.”

After the camp ended, Horowitz said to Safhay’s mother, “This guy needs training right now because he’s ready to burst forward; before his head gets filled with nonsense, we gotta give him real academic training.” Horowitz suggested that Safhay study with colleague Jack Rabinowitz, who taught adult art classes at a local community center. At age 13, Safhay was accepted and began studying live nude figure drawing. “The models were winking at me and it was kind of embarrassing at first,” said Safhay.

In his first class with the new teacher, Safhay felt pressure to impress. When Rabinowitz came around to his easel, he said, “You’re tight. You’re doing every little cuticle on the branch–loosen up, get the feel of it. What’s so fascinating about that one area? You gotta work the whole page.” To Safhay’s great dismay, his teacher threw his paper away. “I was a little crushed. That was supposed to be impressive and I got panned. I toughened up instantly. He spoke with such authority–he was a real professor of art,” said Safhay.

Rabinowitz took an interest in Safhay and apprenticed him at his studio in Soho, Manhattan. From 1970-1972, Safhay took drawing lessons with Rabinowitz at his Catskills summer home, where Safhay lived with him and helped him stretch canvases, “getting tips from a master; and he was a master,” said Safhay.

Rabinowitz encouraged his apprentice to become steeped in watercolor painting by studying the greats: Cezanne, Monet, Turner, and Pizarro. Safhay routinely went to the Ossining Public Library and took out as many books as he could to enhance his understanding. Rabinowitz told him to look at African masks to see how their expressiveness inspired Picasso; Safhay returned with ink drawings of the masks. Rabinowitz then gave Safhay his next assignment: “Now I want you to do one all in white–white on white–you can do variations on white and there’s no such thing as white- there’s a million tones in every direction. I want you to sensitize yourself to using white and off-white in the creative process.” Safhay came back with an assemblage and Rabinowitz said, “I like this piece, I think it would look great in my Catskills studio, would you consider trading?” Safhay traded his assemblage for one of his teacher’s drawings, “and to this day, it’s my prized possession, and the ultimate compliment,” said Safhay, who was 14 years old at the time.

One day they were outside painting landscapes when Safhay complained that the scenery was boring. Rabinowitz said, “It’s all in your head; you pick out what intrigues you about what you’re seeing, and art is everywhere. Art is life. You don’t have to have spectacular home runs all the time, all you have to do is depict what’s around you honestly, and little by little, it will grow on you. And if it’s any good, it will grow on other people.”

Rabinowitz taught Safhay discipline, how to train his focus, and the importance of documenting the different stages of the creative process. Safhay said, “He gave me all the good habits. He was old school. When I later studied at Cooper Union, nobody had any concept of any of it, so I was really disappointed. I was taught sociological significance, political initiative, iconography, and psychological imagery, and all this crap. I never heard the word ‘beauty’ mentioned once. What is art but beauty for the eyes? Just like music is beauty for the ears.” 

Safhay’s formative studies with Rabinowitz abruptly ended when his teacher passed away in 1974, after which Safhay was given the ultimate honor; he was asked to add the finishing touches on Rabinowitz’s last painting by the conservator of his estate.

When asked to share his philosophy of art, Safhay said: “The idea of art is to please the eyes. Ideally, you make art and you sustain it with the proceeds. If there are no proceeds, what are you gonna paint? Are you gonna try and paint what people want to see, or are you gonna try to please your inner need and hope that one day they come around to your way of thinking and are invited into your brain to look at the world through your eyes?”

David Safhay’s “From the Ashes” is on display now from 12-5 p.m., Friday-Sunday (and by appointment: 570-229-4970) at Chelsea on the Delaware, a new gallery designed by Safhay at 90 Main Street in the Shops at Narrowsburg, where he will be hosting an exhibition party open to the public on Saturday, September 6, from 2-4p.m. Visit his website at https://davidsafhay.com/.