In Conversation with David Onri Anderson

Nashville-based artist David Onri Anderson elevates the everyday, from bananas and mushrooms to candles and eggs, into the realm of the spiritual. Drawing on Jewish mysticism, tantric philosophy and the folk traditions of his Tennessee upbringing, he extracts dyes and textures from his own garden and paints emotion into the things that sustain him. We spoke with David about foraged pigments, the energy of everyday objects and the story behind his Haystack edition, Early Banana Peel Sunrise.

You work with materials sourced from your own garden — leaves, walnuts, flowers, fruit. How did you first start incorporating foraged dyes and pigments into your practice?

I grew up in Tennessee, surrounded by people who used natural things for crafting and other traditional uses. There was folk art around me that involved using whatever they could find, and there was always a tradition of making things with what you have. I eventually realized that all the beautiful flowers blooming around me could find a place in my work, as well as many other materials.

Your work draws on Jewish mysticism and tantric philosophy — how did you first encounter these influences, and how do they show up in your process?

I am a Sephardic Jewish person with roots in Algeria. My grandfather was born to a rabbi and his wife, who had taken a vow of poverty and ministered to Jews and Muslims in Algeria. There is ancient Jewish magic in my blood. The tantric philosophy came later, as I studied spirituality in art more and discovered similar traditions in Rajasthan, India. It really spoke to me as a way to visualize our spiritual realities.

David Onri Anderson, Early Banana Peel Sunrise, 2020. Archival pigment print on Canson Infinity Edition Etching Rag.

What is it about everyday objects, like bananas or mushrooms, that draws you to elevate them into something spiritual or transcendent?

It’s kind of a literal realization I had one day: I eat bananas and mushrooms and apples almost every day (there was a time when I depended on them even more), and I paint almost every day. Eventually I realized that all this painting I’m doing is supported by the energy of these things: the bananas, apples, mushrooms, eggs. So I wanted to pay tribute to these life-giving sources and make paintings that capture their energetic generosity. They deserve it, in my opinion.

Can you tell us the story behind your edition with us, Early Banana Peel Sunrise — what was happening in your studio or life when it came together?

I think it was around 2019 when I made that painting. My life was kind of falling apart, I was depressed and I was working at the Tennessee State Museum every day. I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with bananas in it every day for three months while working there. I knew I wanted to make something about the banana peel, but make it feel monumental as well as quietly poetic and abstract-ish. I thought about the sunrise more because of waking up early and insomnia. That painting got picked up for a group show at Vanderbilt about archetypes and C.G. Jung, and from that show it sold. The rest is history.

Between painting, music, lecturing and curating, how do those different practices feed into each other?

I see the world as a multilayered zone of experiences and sensations. For me, art can incorporate anything at any time if you are open to what resonates. I see my whole life as an art practice that is about cultivating beauty, health, knowledge and love. I find many ways to incorporate these ideas, and sometimes they take different forms, but in doing different activities I find more inspiration comes where I didn’t expect it. Music helps the rhythmic flow quality of my visual art and vice versa. Looking at art all the time makes me notice artists who are underrepresented, and that feeds into my need to curate. And gathering all this strange knowledge while doing this studio practice gives me insight that becomes content for my lectures and my own future artistic projects.

Interested in adding Early Banana Peel Sunrise to your collection? Click here to learn more about David Onri Anderson.