David Bierk

David Charles Bierk (June 9, 1944 – August 28, 2002) was an American-Canadian realist painter known for working in the postmodern genre. Early life Born in Appleton, Minnesota, to Glennon Bierk and Doris Ruth Steenson, Bierk moved with his mother to Lafayette, California, following his parents' divorce. Bierk said of his childhood, "We were plunked into an upper middle class neighbourhood before divorce was common, and she [my mother] not only provided for me but also was my mother, father, teacher and friend. It was my uncle Spiros, though, who taught me – at an early age – what you might call the work ethic. I always worked, at least from the time I was in grade six or seven. Spiros owned a mayonnaise factory in San Francisco and I started working there, doing things like scraping the labels of returned mayonnaise bottles and scraping the mold from cheese – eight hour days in the summers from the time I was 12 or 13." Bierk graduated from high school in 1962 and joined the National Guard. Initially he studied at California College of Arts & Crafts, Bierk dropped out after a year and half, and as he described it, "...I took off, hitchhiked across the country, ended up in Florida, and then caught a boat to the Bahamas....I got a job as librarian at...Mary Star of the Sea School, a Catholic grammar school, where I persuaded Sister Mary Alice to let me teach art as well." Upon his return to California, Bierk was admitted to Humboldt State University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts 1969, and a master of fine arts in 1970. Bierk's sister-in-law lived in Toronto, and in 1971 he immigrated there with his young family.