David Habben: Flow

David Habben has filled sketchbook after sketchbook with what he calls his “strange doodles”—curious characters and creatures that come to life in his highly detailed ballpoint and watercolor pencil drawings. But his work has simultaneously evolved in another direction. Two years ago, he began collaborating with the University of Utah’s School of Dance program, where he embraced a new creative dialogue. Gaining inspiration from the dancers’ movement, he created a series of abstract paintings meant to invoke the energy, power and flow of what he was witnessing. David Habben: Flow will unite the artist’s two creative modes—the personal one within the pages of his sketchbooks, and the collaborative one of his Be Somewhere series. Here, the abstract compositions of Be Somewhere—work that documents time, place and energy—become the base for a new story, oftentimes with the wit and humor that is characteristic of his sketches.