Born in 1944 in the LA suburb of Torrance, an only child with many creative talents, David Ludwig discovered his creative gifts and began drawing and painting in elementary school. He enjoyed playing music from an early age and began studying the piano at age 8, clarinet at 12, and guitar 17. As an Eagle Scout, he followed his fascination with Native American culture through a branch of scouting called the Order of the Arrow, where he studied Native American dance and ceremony. and later at 17, he became proficient in contemporary social dancing. As a senior in high school, an intuitive art teacher pointed David in the direction of architecture, and after that the four creative centers of architecture, art, music and dance were his primary interests.
After attending junior and state collages, David moved to Berkeley in 1964 to attend Cal, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture 1968 (cum laude), and a Master of Architecture 1971. Trained by his father as a carpenter during his teens, David worked his way through school designing and building small remodel projects in Berkeley, and after graduating he worked as a beginning designer for a few well-known local architectural firms. After several years of design apprenticeship, he opened his own firm named Dovetail Design and Construction where for the next seventeen years, he designed and built over a hundred fifteen residential and small commercial projects in the San Francisco Bay Area.
While developing his design/build business and professional career, David kept his interest in art alive by painting with watercolors and pastels, and by exploring photography. He kept his interest in dance and theater alive by taking classes at a local dance school, Berkeley Ballet Theater. In 1987, and David was asked if he could help with the annual school production of "The Nutcracker" by creating a special 21' x 38' stage backdrop for "The Land of Snow" on silk. This was his invitation and introduction to painting large format images on silk, and after inventing the tools and techniques necessary, he created four other stage backdrops drops for the school. David eventually realized that he had found a unique and rewarding medium of artistic expression – no one else was painting theater-sized images on silk. David went on to become Chairman of the Board for BBT and to dance as Drosselmeier in The Nutcracker for ten years.
David closed his design/build business in 1987 and went to work for a Polsky Architects in Marin County. There, his architectural interest evolved into designing high-end custom homes, and over the next 17 years, he completed 70 residential and educational projects. He enjoyed working in a variety of styles, but preferred creating arts-and-crafts and lodge-style homes. His design skills blossomed from a unique aptitude for space planning, and he used his artistic skills to produce finely crafted hand drawings of his designs at a time when most architects have moved on to CAD.
David evaluated his personal and creative goals in 1994, and reduced his commitment to practicing architecture to x time. He opened a small art business called Silk Spirit, and used his additional free time to develop his art; doing photography, creating silk theater backdrops, special silk fabrics for costumes, dance veils, shawls, and fine art watercolor and pastel drawings. At the same time, his dance interest evolved through studying jazz with David Jones at College of Marin, to studying folk dance with the Sacred Circle Dancers in Berkeley, to studying and performing Middle Eastern dance. He began taking class with Carolina Nericco of FatChanceBellyDance, and with Sherry Briar of Inner Rhythm Studios, and he became involved in the local Middle Eastern cultural community. From 1996 to 2002 David studied and danced with 12 women as a member of troupe Ala Nar, created silk backdrops for several Middle Eastern dance festivals. He is currently studying and performing on the ney or Middle-eastern reed-flute, doumbeck or daribuka and the soprano saxophone.
In 2003 David met international music promoter Miles Copland at a dance festival and was commissioned to produce his first digitally printed backdrops for an international dance troupe, The Bellydance Superstars. David’s digital drops began touring the world with this group and have been presented in many famous venues such as the Follies Bergere in Paris. In 2003 and 2004, David also produced silk and digital drops for use in off-Broadway productions in NYC. He is currently renting his drops over the internet and enjoys sending them off for weekend use at Middle Eastern dance performances, church events and weddings.
In 2005, David left Polsky Architects and opened his own architecture practice in San Anselmo, CA., where he does both residential remodel and new home projects. He has created a design philosophy centered on lodge style and was featured in a local magazine in April of 06. His favorite architecture styles are lodge, arts and crafts, Mediterranean and a contemporary style called new primitive.
After viewing “An Inconvenient Truth”, David made a personal commitment to the “not-so-big” house movement and green building as his way of helping preserve the environment. To this end he has also moved out of his rental home and currently lives full time in a new solar-powered Airstream Trailer in Greenbrae, where he has set up a part-time mobile office and is slowly moving toward a semi-nomadic lifestyle designing homes while in Marin or on the road, sharing his story, doing his photography, playing music and dancing.
