“Nothing is new” to Dave Bowers, so he illustrates the familiar in his own style

Dave Bowers hails from Sacramento, California. He used to draw a lot, but today his practice has some limitations: his drawings are now fitted around the routines of his new daughter. When she naps, he tries to make quick sketches. Of course, the short moments where he could free up his hands led to him prioritising simple shapes, simple colours and simple messages. “If someone reads into it, that’s cool,” says Dave. “But it’s not my focus.”

The results are illustrations that begin “without a plan”. He puts down simple shapes or lines and sees where his pen takes him. There’s a childhood whimsy in these drawings, no doubt inspired by his daughter, but also fleeting everyday thoughts caught before they disappear into the ether and thrown down on the page: a child standing in a gust of motorcycle fumes, a plant that is almost completely made out of blobs, ghostly figures sitting at a table or some kind of shelled creature at an art gallery. Like he says, his focus isn’t on having a point, but on letting the viewer glean whatever they choose from it. “I like having rules. I also like ignoring them when it feels right. If something isn’t working, I stop. Go ride my bike. Come back later,” says Dave.

He also uses Procreate to polish up drawings or add artificial colouring and textures, it sits in a nice intersection between analogue and digital grit. If it isn’t already clear, Dave’s artistic pursuits are simple and his influences are too: people, nature, monsters, “weird stuff”. Driven by nostalgia, midcentury illustrations and toys, he says “nothing is new”, so he illustrates the familiar in his own way. “It took me a while to be okay with that. Now I just make what I like.”