The Same Moon

David Fraiser Driesbach

David Driebach usually includes a self-portrait in his prints as a participant or an observer of the scene, in this case, he sits at his desk with a sheet of paper while wearing a dunce hat and holding a pencil in one hand and a drink in the other. Around him stands a disparate group of characters: a doctor, a mysterious cloaked figure, a murderer, a cop, and a socialite holding an umbrella, all under a crescent moon.

The implication is that, to the universe, we are all equal - we all exist under the same moon, even the artist, who is often percieved as being from outer space. Driesbach's body of work has always emphasized the drama and mysteries of the human experience.

Driesbach took a leave from teaching in 1969 to study color viscosity printing with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 in Paris (he had also studied there in New York) after which he commented: "Strangely enough, it has had a kind of freeing effect on the way I work in prints. It doesn't take me so long to get into making a print anymore after working with [Hayter]."