About David

Meet David, the force behind Buckley Creative. 

 

Hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, David Buckley is a child of the '80s who grew up with a head full of dreams and immersed in the worlds of sci-fi, superheroes, Saturday morning cartoons, and all things pop culture. He recalls that his passion for art began at an early age, with the joy of watching his great-grandfather sketch little flowers to entertain the family children. That simple act sparked his lifelong fascination with drawing and creating.

As a young child, if he wasn’t drawing pictures of his favorite characters from TV shows of the time, like The Looney Tunes and the Superfriends, he was building makeshift robots from household objects or crafting fantastical worlds with his action figures. Recognizing his creative inclinations and natural artistic talent, his parents enrolled him in numerous art classes at a local arts center throughout elementary and high school, where he gained a strong foundation in design principles.

He later studied Fine Art at the University of Akron, where he discovered a love for watercolor. Drawn to its loose, expressive quality, he describes working with watercolor as a form of “controlled chaos”—striking a delicate balance between intentionality and spontaneity. Over time, his lifelong fascination with comic books, folk art, and pop culture influenced his signature style: bold black linework, sketchy and full of energy, layered with vibrant watercolor washes.

Throughout his professional career as a designer in the theme park industry, he has continued to pursue his own artistic practice, consistently exhibiting and selling his paintings and illustrations.

In 2008, he and his wife took a one-year sabbatical to travel the world, visiting 22 countries. This transformative journey left a lasting impact on both his life and his art. Travel became more than a hobby; it became a lens through which he viewed the world and a source of endless inspiration. His work often reflects themes of adventure, far-off places, and dreamlike moments in time, whether drawn from reality, imagination, or somewhere in between.

Today, his artwork blends fun and whimsy with the nostalgic, pulling from his loves of pop culture, fantasy, storytelling, and travel. Each piece offers a glimpse into a playful world—sometimes lived, sometimes imagined, and is often filled with his own cast of indelible characters.

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