David Lee Hosler

How It All Began

My journey into Art began in 2008, while visiting the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam. I recall being drawn like a magnet to a small painting in a back gallery; that painting was The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer. The vision I saw in that painting moved me in a way I had never really felt. The colors and the scene itself were genuinely soul stirring.
Fully inspired yet having never really drawn or painted, I went to a local art supply the next day and purchased pencils and a sketchbook. With no idea of how to begin or what to draw, I carried a sketchbook with me for the next two years trying to teach myself to draw. Something new was motivating me, opening my eyes to the world that I had never known but was quickly falling in love with.

I have continued to learn and benefit from the years of commitment and practice necessary to be a good steward of that initial Dutch inspiration. Art is a discipline with both rewards and challenges, and any artist (visual, musician, dancer, or the like) will tell you that it takes a lot of work, persistence, and willingness to be bad at your craft before you can bear the fruits of your practice.
My Journey into Art was awakened by that commitment and artistic sensitivity of people
who no doubt were captivated by others’ creativity and the ways they express themselves.
Over the years, that love and appreciation for the arts has become a driving passion and offered me a way to enrich the lives I reach with my own art and story.

-David Hosler, 2024

Forward by Bob Taylor

Dave Hosler has a knack.

knack

/năk/

1) A special talent or skill, especially one difficult to explain or teach.

2) A tendency or pattern of behavior.

I don’t really remember meeting David, but I sure remember getting to know him. He came to work at Taylor Guitars, having moved from Florida, family in tow.

Okay, do this. He did it. Do that. He did it. Then, he did things we didn’t ask. Things changed, good changes. Improvements came. Then those improved things changed. If something worked he did it. If it stopped working or was no longer needed, he modified and changed. No dust balls grew behind the benches of the portions of Taylor Guitars where David worked. He was always moving things, making better flow or use of the space and talent available.

Then he had ideas about guitars and we worked those out and implemented them. Guitars got better. David always stepped up to help. His ideas were cool and well thought out. He was always thinking. Okay, tortured might be more insightful for me to say.

I remember he bought a house. A 60’s thing on a rock pile in the dry gusty hills of East County San Diego. A touch here. A design there. Some elbow grease. All with vision of what could be. He didn’t destroy and rebuild, rather he brought that house to a place it always had potential to be. When he was done, my goodness, it was a piece of art. And the rock pile was coaxed into being a sanctuary. I’m not even going to mention the front door but it was beautiful and I could not have thought of it!

We expanded Taylor Guitars’ operations to Europe. David volunteered to go work, and in the evenings he had some time. So he went to an art supply store and bought paper and pencil. Then, I don’t know, he watched a You Tube or read a book, or took an online class? Don’t ask me. But he drew until he started liking the results.

People sometimes say that anything can be learned through practice. Okay, sure. Well, no. Sorry, no. Some things can. But anything can’t. You can’t learn to have vision. You might learn to play a piano but you might never learn to compose.

This is why I say David has a knack. Yes he practiced, but his art work flourished more than practice allows, and I feel like I had a ringside seat watching it from the first until now.

It’s not easily explained nor easily taught. It’s a behavior, a tendency, a skill, and it encompasses way more than this book of his work reveals, because this is only a part of what David does or is. I’m not just a fan of David Hosler’s work because he’s my friend. The time I spend admiring his work, or bragging about his work, goes beyond that. It’s true appreciation.

He’s got a knack. And I love it.

Bob Taylor