Opening an entry way to art

Growing up in Granite City, Illinois on the eastside of St. Louis, David Zukas copied the drawings of his fly fishing maternal grandfather James Rideout, which was the beginning of his love for art.
Zukas continued drawing and sketching through high school, then when earning a bachelor’s at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill., and obtaining a master’s at Florida International University in Miami.
For the past five years, spurred by the idea of being more physical with art by his father-in-law, Haitian sculptor Patrick Vilaire, Zukas hit on the idea of painting on old doors from homes. At that same time he was painting his rendering of the famous “Door of No Return.” The door was the point from where many African slaves took their final steps from their home continent and onto the slave ships that would bring them to the Western hemisphere, if they survived the journey.
“It was a great idea, the sculptor telling me to be physical,” Zukas said. “Yeah, I’ve been dumpster diving for 100-year-old doors, or if people are remodeling their homes I ask them if they are throwing them away. It’s environmentally sound, green painting.”
Working in his basement studio, Zukas does not strip the doors, much of which have been painted in the past with lead paint. He coats them first with a latex or polyurethane seal then starts fresh. He loves oil, but mostly works in the less expensive acrylic. The images he paints comes from photographs that he has taken or other sources.

A teacher who has taught at the Staten Island academy and the Brownsville Academy in Brooklyn, both charter schools, Zukas has exhibited his work throughout the five boroughs and has through Feb. 26 his work is on display at the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library.
“Big-time galleries what to know where you exhibited before you show your work,” Zukas said. “I would hang my work in a dark alley if I knew someone would come look at.”
Hewlett-Woodmere library’s Librarian/ Music Specialist Rick Fox selected Zukas’ work for exhibit. “I think David Zukas’ images are brilliant and the themes he explores make them more interesting.” Fox said. “The use of doors as medium certainly raise the impact of his recent series of works.”
Zukas, currently a stay at home dad, and his wife, Regine Vilaire, have two children, Anais, 6, and Aidan, 4.
Though he understands the difficulty of being an artist, Zukas said he doesn’t push students away from it if there is a passion for doing the work. “You could enter any field looking for people with creative ideas, I’m not sure I would steer them elsewhere, but there is no way I can pay my bills with just my art. But the good thing is I paint whatever I want. Success is I can paint what I want.”
An artist’s reception is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 23 at the library at 1125 Broadway in Hewlett from 2 to 4 p.m.