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]."

David Fraiser Dreisbach, printmaker and educator, was born in Wausau, Wisconsin on October 7, 1922 to George Croll Driesbach and Lucy Adelaide Kilbourn. During the 1930s, David and his two brothers loved to sing, and would perform as a trio on the radio in Rockford, Illinois. He met the love of his life, and future wife of 72 years, Doris Elaine Magnuson, while in junior high school. Both graduated from Rockford High School in 1940.

Driesbach set off to the University of Illinois in 1940, but his schooling was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. He would go on to enlist in the Marine Corps First Division, and was sent to the South Pacific, where he served from 1942-1945. Due to his keen sense of direction and artistic abilities, he was tapped as a scout, who would seek out enemy encampments, and return to headquarters to draw the war map for the officers in charge. He returned to the United States on Thanksgiving Day, 1945, having lost one brother in the Navy. He recalled every soldier on board ship weeping when they crossed under the Golden Gate Bridge, seeing their home country again at long last.

Shortly after the war, David and Doris ("Maggie") were married on December 21, 1946, and five children followed soon after. He continued his education under the G.I. Bill, studying with Mauricio Lasansky and Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 in New York and in France in 1969. Driesbach attended Beloit College from 1946 to 1947, the University of Wisconsin summer term of 1946, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1947 to 1948, and the University of Iowa between the years 1948 and 1951, receiving his BFA and MFA. He went on to teach as an art professor at several colleges and universities, before ending his illustrious career at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.

David Driesbach died on November 17, 2019 in Wheaton, Illinois at the age of 97.