Janet Gwendolyn Smith Art

David A. Guess (March 23, 1979-September 18, 2019) USA, Wisconsin, Florida

David A. Guess, the son of David & Arlene Guess. Both parents encouraged his artistic interests from a very young age. David’s father owns Winspro Construction Company, which inspects commercial and home real estate. He designs and constructs home and business updates and remodels. His mother, Arlene is an interior designer and artist. She also owns her own business, Encore Fine Décor and Interiors. His brother, Jay is an accomplished musician playing saxophone, director of a jazz band, performs weekly and has musical recordings to his credit. The family originates from Wisconsin and relocated to Florida.

Guess was highly driven and very creative, developing many different types of art and exploring many new venues. As his artistic skills developed daily he was drawing, illustrating and painting. He gravitated to oil painting, murals, book illustration, cartoons, caricatures, comic book illustration and comic strips. He was proficient in all mediums.

His art education started in elementary school in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. After graduation from high school, he continued his education and was a self-employed commissioned artist and working free lance as an editorial cartoonist at the Capital Newspapers in Madison, WI. Guess was a life long contributing illustrator to the Baraboo News Republic of Wisconsin.

Formal art education after high school started with a BFA, Drawing and Painting, 2000-2002 at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). He continued his education at Full Sail University, receiving an Associate of Science from 2004-2005, A.S.J. in Film. This encompassed all film making aspects from directing, production, design, story boards and editing. Guess completed his Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA) in Illustration at the Academy of Art University 2009-2011.

His projects were many and diverse inspired by people, animals, places and things that were familiar and interesting to him. He was commissioned for specific work in oil on canvas highly skilled in landscape and portrait. The editorial cartoon background gave him a different vantage point of a person or animal creating a unique and memorable portrait of the subject. Guess embraced the digital world on-line. His YouTube channel features his illustration portfolio and is titled “Somewhere in Space”. His Facebook page shared many of his illustrations, commissions and projects with friends and family.

Guess illustrated books, but was an author of his own children's boojs writing in a rhythmic style similar to Dr. Suess. To his credit are the following publications. Yucca: Year of the Goat. The book Giraffesaurus was published in 2019 and available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites.

He was interviewed by Noah Vernau, reporter of the Portage Daily Register, May 24, 2019 and the interview was picked up by the Baraboo News Republic. The news articles are “A Diary Without Words” and “Dell’s Native Pens Children’s Book about Gigantic Giraffe.” The articles also describe the diary Guess kept from 2000 forward of only illustrations and not one written word, just the date. The article features his book Giraffesaurus. He had just submitted a new children’s book for publication featuring 2 characters called Flip and Flop.

Guess loved his little dog, Oliver, a survivor of the parvovirus. Together they celebrated Oliver’s 3rd birthday in 2019. Guess had started several storyboards of caricatures featuring Oliver’s activities and antics for future publications.

Lake David was his quiet place in Groveland, FL. This is where he took his camera and captured the sunsets, animal life and tropical landscapes. The colors and subjects appeared in his fine art. Everyday he worked on a fine art project.

Guess was a quiet and thoughtful man. Always creating and drawing daily. He connected with friends and family through his smile and art. His fine art is held in private collections throughout the USA. His art has been exhibited in Chicago, Wisconsin and Florida at various private and public galleries.

Sources: Biography based on a personal interviews with family and the artist in 2018 and 2019 in Clermont, FL and Groveland, FL written by Janet G. Smith, American art historian.

Copyright 2019-2024 David Guess and Arlene Guess

Copyright 2004-2024 Janet Gwendolyn Smith Art
All artwork is copyright of the respective owner or artist.