A Tangled Web: Sixty Years of Observing the Natural World Through a Wonderous Lens Continues to Inspire International Sculptor David Marshall
by Suzi Mitchell
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Art with Altitude.
Sculptor David Marshall’s latest installation, Tangled Web, at City Hall in Steamboat Springs, is a testament to his extraordinary ability to transfer contemplation into creation. David, who divides his time between his home in Hahns Peak and a remote farm in the Andalusian mountains of southern Spain, feels the piece mirrors the current chaos of today’s world.
“Sculpture is a primordial necessity—a way to depict my ruminations,” he says. “This gene of creativity has shaped and motivated my life for close to 60 years.”
Now in his ninth decade, David shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, he is as prolific as ever, working out of his studio in Spain, poring over the scribbles and sketches that fill a lifetime’s worth of leather journals. Among the sparks of inspiration were a series of markings in the sand he observed on a relatively recent motorcycle trip with friends to Morocco. His bike broke down, and in typical form, he waited out the time for help by observing details in his natural environment.
“I was completely struck by these tracks—what made them, and how long would they be there before nature or human contact wiped them away for good?” he says. “It made me question, ‘What do we really leave behind when our time is done here?’”
These ponderings, along with drawings of metamorphosing shapes found in rocks, rivers and animal tracks while stateside, ignited inspiration for his current series, Tracks and Traces.
Every sculpture begins in a customized polystyrene mold, which is individually sandcast in brass or aluminum, then finished and mounted or erected. Many of the pieces have been shipped to the U.S., where he retains a strong following for his abstract wall murals, totems and standalone forms.
“Nature teaches us to think beyond the concept of perfection,” he says. “Few lines are ever straight; forms and textures allow us to appreciate the weird and wondrous. As a sculptor, I am blessed with an infinite palette of organic configurations from which to draw.”
After decades of public appearances and gallery-based shows, David is less visible now, choosing to exhibit at his own gallery in Spain and in a couple of locations dotted around the Western U.S., through collaborative works with Steamboat-based glass artist
Jennifer Baker. The pair joined forces on their first collection in 2015 and have continued to create a handful of metal and glass forms since.
“His style is very raw, and he works without boundaries, which has inspired my own creativity so much,” Baker says.
When he’s back in the U.S., David can be found tinkering around his hand-built, two-story barn in Hahns Peak. While his physical work is done in Spain, his mind continues at a million miles an hour in a space filled with objects gathered from years of wanderlust. A self-professed collector of worldly curiosities, he never knows when one of his finds might become the perfect item for repurposing.
“Our time here is finite, and I keep questioning—what do we really all leave behind when we’re gone?”
This lifetime of curious contemplation and extraordinary talent makes up the tangled web that is the mind of the deeply humble sculptor, David Marshall.
Elevate the Arts: Visit the new Civic Plaza at 10th and Lincoln to see David’s sculpture or visit david-marshall.org/en/ to see more of David’s works. SM
