DAVID JONASON’S WORK draws upon a wide variety of inspirations: the austere beauty of the American Southwest, the esthetics of cubism and deco, plus the crafts of the Southwest’s Native tribes.His love of desert landscapes began in childhood on family rock hunting trips to the Mojave and Anza Borrego deserts in California. Jonason’s early career as an artist started out in the home furnishing industry where he created designs for wall covering, sheets and linens, and other products using repeating patterns. This led to him incorporating the geometric motifs of the arts and crafts of the Southwest’s native tribes into his current paintings. “I love the way Navajo weavers or Pueblo potters portrayed the natural world though geometric motifs”.
The hard edge, graphic qualities of Art Deco/cubist influence are also strongly felt in his work. The angular shapes of this esthetic easily lend themselves to the red buttes and mesas of the American West. “For me, painting is a process of simplifying the forms and finding the natural geometries in the desert scenery.”
Jonason considers his style to be a fusion of cubism and realism. “I like to think of my work as a continuation of the Taos Moderns like Dasburg, Higgins, and Bisttram”.