David Buttram

The inner city, with all the urban mystifications, is the backdrop of the artistic works and paintings of David Buttram. Inspired by the iconic masters of yesteryear, including Van Gough, Rembrandt, O’Tanner and The Eight, among other impressionist and works of the Ashcan school, Buttram creates images of natural and man-made objects with vivid combinations of lights, shadows, reflections and colors. Each work reveals a range of human emotion and mood enabling viewers to convey the toil, strife, beauty and peace within. Capturing the moment within the city that expresses the precious nuances of life, Buttram illuminates the challenge among his subjects through the diversity of looks and attitudes making each painting a uniquely joyous celebration.

Buttram has exhibited his works across Northeast Ohio, in addition to locals across the Midwest. Among the public space are The Cleveland Institute of Art, the Cleveland State Art Gallery, the Karamu House in Cleveland, and the Kettering Government Center. Additionally, on numerous occasions his works have graced the Ohio’s Governor’s Mansion in Columbus, Ohio.

A Vietnam veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Buttram is a graduate of the Cooper School of Art and The Cleveland Institute of Art earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He completed a Master of Art Education from Kent State University. He spent his career as an art educator with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District where he retired. Today, Buttram continues to create and paint at his
home studio.