Making his points

MATAMORAS —The scent of burning wood fills the air as smoke rises from the plywood when artist David B. Applegate burns in one of the thousands of dots it takes to create his art. Applegate has been an artist for over seven years. He has no formal training but his talent emerged during his years of alcohol recovery when he had plenty of time on his hands. He began doodling with a pencil then moved on to watercolors and acrylics and eventually made his way to wood burning about three years ago. He uses a conventional soldering iron and originally began by burning in “lines” on wood to create pictures. Later he found his unique method of burning in “dots” that form the final image. He burns in larger dots in close proximity to create dark areas while using smaller dots with more space between them to lighten up other sections. He loves to recreate DaVinci style images on wood. On the day the Courier visited his studio, which is just outside his front door on the porch, he was doing a custom portrait from a photograph. He likes working outside with plenty of open air because the burning process creates fumes and the available natural light makes it easy to see his progress. Most of his work is sold at local galleries and he has been displaying at the Golden Fish Gallery on Broad Street in Milford for quite awhile. Some of his work can be priced as high as $1,000 or more, depending on the amount of time he takes to create the piece. Applegate said, “I also do a lot of custom work from people who want a wood-burned portrait created from a photograph they supply.” He went on to say, “I like doing portraits because faces tell a story.” “The last two years have been really tough financially and people have a hard time spending what my art has to sell for. If things don’t improve over the next year or so I’ll have to change my plans. I used to be a restaurant cook and I may have to travel back to New York City where there is always plenty of work for a cook,” Applegate said with a tone of sadness in his voice. He was busy working on portrait he started over five months ago and which he says may take him another year to complete. “By the time I’m done with this I figure I will have burned over three hundred thousand dots,” Applegate said. His work can be seen at the Golden Fish Gallery or he can be contacted at 570-228-8281 for additional information and custom commissions.