My name is David West, and I am an artist, bookmaker and teacher based out of Homewood, Alabama.

Originally from Brookhaven, Mississippi, I spent most of the first 30 years of my life in Mississippi, studying painting, teaching and working various jobs to support my art habit. I went further south for graduate school to Louisiana State University where I earned an MFA in printmaking. While in college I fell in love not only with the serious study of art but also with helping others get better at their own processes. This turned into an almost twenty-year career of teaching private lessons, working as a high school art teacher and ultimately working as a professor of art. During this time I have had the privilege of working with students from all over the world and seeing them do amazingly brave and inspiring things. I am particularly proud of what my students have done-not for what it says about me as a teacher, but for what it says about them as people who want to more fully engage with the world around them. As I have transitioned from a full-time academic into a full-time artist, my view on teaching and its role in my life and what I want out of it have changed as well. What I sincerely hope for all of the students and artists I work with is a life that allows for art to not be an add-on or an extra, but rather to be a central part of the way in which they interact with the world. A life that is an artful one filled with compassion and beauty and curiosity and love for their communities and the people around them.

You can contact me at dwestart@gmail.com