Meet the artists’ ‘yes’ man
Curating for others inspires David Wheeler, aka ‘Dovey Wuvey’
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To survive as an artist, self-promotion is the name of the game.
David Wheeler is an artist, and he'd be happy to sell you one of his paintings. But these days he spends less time in his studio and more time creating opportunities for other area artists.
For more than a year, Wheeler has curated the monthly exhibitions at the Fine Arts Council of Trumbull County's Art on Park in downtown Warren.
But he's also curated exhibitions at area businesses and Soap Gallery in downtown Youngstown. He curated the Lindsay DeLullo and Gary Taneri exhibition currently up at Havana House in Niles and is working with the Soap Gallery owners to curate an exhibition by Claudia Berlinski, director of the McDonough Museum of Art, at an empty retail space adjacent to Common Goods Studio in Youngstown. It opens today.
Becoming a cheerleader for the arts community wasn't something he planned.
"I don't know," he answered when asked how it started. "I guess the opportunities come about, I get wind of them and, 'Hello, I'm David, I can curate for you." Or someone asks me to do something and I say, 'Yes.' The key is, when opportunity comes your way, say, 'Yes.'
"There also are a few artists out there I've been noticing and like what they're doing, and I want to reach out and grab them and grab some venue and put them together. That's exciting for me."
Wheeler, 40, has lived in Warren since 2016, but he grew up in Columbus. He had a simple one-word answer for what brought him here.
"Recovery. ... There's actually a really strong recovery community here. There are companies here that run recovery programs more so than anywhere else in Ohio. I ended up coming here through Glenbeigh."
Going through treatment rekindled a passion for art that started as a child.
"Columbus College of Art and Design has Saturday morning classes for children," Wheeler said. "I went to those on full scholarship for many, many years. I was exposed to all kinds of media and occasionally we'd have the professors and adjuncts teach our classes, so it was super fun for children. You felt like you were in college at 12 years old. That had a huge impact on me I believe."
After high school he also was active in concert and event promotion, back in the pre-social media days when getting the word out meant putting fliers anywhere and everywhere.
Those skills for DIY promotion also come in handy these days, whether he's promoting his own work or the work of others. Wheeler admitted art creation and art promotion remain passion projects rather than financially lucrative ones.
"Most of the things I've done for profit, I've broken even on, at best, and at this point in time I'm doing very little for profit," he said. "Most are community events, not charging artists to be in it.
"With my own art, I occasionally sell a nice painting, which is sweet, but I'm not breaking even on that side at all. I spend so much money in supplies and studio rental."
There are rewards, even if they're not financial ones. There are artists who never had shown their work publicly until they entered one of the shows at Art on Park that Wheeler now sees selling their work at artists' markets.
Curating a show in a new space gives Wheeler a chance to fulfill his creative needs in a different way, arranging the work in the best way possible to showcase the artist as well as the space. Coming up with different themes for the Art on Park exhibitions also is satisfying.
One of the shows he said he's most proud of is an exhibition in January at Havana House featuring the work of Sara Lee and Samuel Perry.
"That show was a huge success," Wheeler said. "Havana House had an excellent sales night for them. We booked two live music acts. I really liked the pairing. Sam Perry has been around for a long time and a lot of people know him. Sara is much younger and just came to town from Colorado a year, two years ago, but she has her own friends group. We got a great mix of people, a lot of work did sell and it looked really good on the walls."
That show also serves as a blueprint for what Wheeler wants to do in the future to expand the reach of local art in the region.
"First of all, it was an opportunity to prove to a business that art is good for business. Havana House believes it. I think Noodlefun next door (to Art on Park) is a big fan of us having art in there. If more businesses could see in the books, in the numbers, that it's good for business, then more businesses will have art and more artists will have places to show their work."
Wheeler creates art using the name Dovey Wuvey. It's a nickname someone gave him in high school, and he started using it professionally to make his work easier to find online.
"I have a very common name," Wheeler said. "It makes it more likely, if you look me up in the future on the Internet, that you'll reach the correct person."
And Dovey Wuvey is drawing inspiration from working with other artists on their shows.
"I'm ready to be better, I'm ready to step up my game. I see a lot of work. I might see more work than most people in town because I got to a lot of shows as well. I see all levels of work, and I can push myself to get to a better level. I have the desire to get in the studio and put some hours in."