Dale Brockman Davis is an artist, teacher, community arts activist, and curator, whose skills have led him to explore Sculpture, Printmaking, Jewelry, 3-Dimensional Design and Ceramics.  He has taught these disciplines to high school students with LAUSD. Mr. Davis was co-founder/director of Brockman Gallery in Leimert Park. He is an active artist who has had numerous exhibits and contemporary art forum exposures, and whose work is in many private and personal collections.

Mr. Davis believes that all people should cultivate an awareness of art in their immediate environment and community at large.  This awareness in young people is essential and vital to their perception and conception of themselves and their world.

Jazz Series – String Instrument inclusions – Visual Skiffle

The inspiration for the string instruments in the Jazz series comes from the Baka people of central Africa whose creation of the one string bass is undoubtedly one of the first bass instruments ever created. This is probably the basis of the Stand Up Bass and Cello. Click here to learn more about the Baka people and to witness their incredible “Earth Bow“. A simple tree sampling bent over a covered hole in the ground, with some type of natural filament attached to it. The Earth Bow uses the earth as its resonator.

Skiffle instruments are improvisational instruments like jugs and jars, wash boards, thimbles, tin cans and galvanized buckets for percussion sounds. Conch shells and animal horns are also good examples of “home made” instruments. Many of my Jazz Composition pieces have prototypes of what I call “Visual Skiffle Instruments”

They are only visual and do not create sounds but challenge the viewer to imagine the sounds that they might create. These realistic looking instruments are fabricated from used cardboard, copper foil, wooden chair parts, palm tree frond branches and various other materials. They all have a three dimensional depth equivalent to real guitars, cellos, and lutes of approximately 5″ in the resonator areas. Can you imagine the potential sounds of these instruments as their surfaces are rubbed, plucked, pulled, strummed, or slapped?

As an object maker with a background in ceramics, sculpture and jewelry making, I am drawn to the idea of skiffle instruments and the concept of visual skiffle. I hope that this background information and these references will help the viewer to better understand more fully the connections made as well as the intention of the work.