David Bierk
June 9 1944-August 28 2002

9.13.03
The last week of August was a rough one for me . August 28 was the first anniversary of my father's passing , & obviously it was an emotional week for myself &  my whole family. This has lead me to thinking alot about my late father & how much I miss him , & last night I was surfing the internet looking for anything on my dad David Bierk . I found this incredible page , which features an article  about my Dad, & then an awesome interview with him that I had never read before . The article & interview were both written & conducted by my Dad's best friend Dennis Tourbin , who was like an uncle to me growing up . I can remember Dennis backstage in Ottawa Canada after the show we did with Pantera, hanging out with all of us & participating in the mayhem that was the "Slave to the Grind" tour. Unfortunately Dennis died in the mid 1990's of brain cancer , which was especially hard on my Dad. It broke his heart to lose his best friend, & then of course not long after that my dad passed away too, which makes this internet page especially poignant. What does this have to do with rock'n'roll you ask ? Most of you know my dad painted the cover for "Slave to the Grind " (which was voted one of the top 5 album covers of the year in Rolling Stone magazine ) , "BRING 'EM BACH ALIVE!", & also the inner artwork for "Subhuman Race " (but not the embarrasing cover, for which my Dad had something special planned , but instead was ruined at the last minute due to "band politics" ). But maybe some of you did not know that Dennis Tourbin wrote the bio of my old band for the "Subhuman Race " album / tour , he was commisioned by Atlantic Records to write the bio & he proceeded to come up with some brilliant poetry inspired by "Subhuman Race " that I will post here on the site sometime . So read this for some insight into where I came from & who & what inspired me to do what I do , & also for an interview with the artist that created the cover for "Slave To The Grind" . If only the last paragraph were true ......

My dad's name was David Bierk .Most of you know that he did the cover for Skid Row's Slave to the Grind record, along with the artwork for Subhuman Race & "BRING 'EM BACH ALIVE!"  as well . Here is a timeline website of just some of his art , including the painting above which is of me & my Grandpa Bill & my mom in a laundromat in 1975 . This painting is part of the Art Gallery of Peterborough collection in Ontario , Canada & can be viewed in person by the public, along with other paintings there by my dad .
 Like Father, Love Son by Sebastian Bach
 David Bierk Bio
 David Bierk Cirriculum Vitae
David Bierk on the Internet
Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York City opens "In Memory of David Bierk " art exhibiton of my dads art . click here for more info or better yet go to the gallery yourself @ 429 West Broadway New York New York & check out some David Bierk Art LIVE !

THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2002
David Bierk, 58, Canadian Artist Who Reinterpreted Masterworks

                          David Bierk, a Canadian painter, died on August 28
                          in Peterborough, Ontario. He was 58.

                          Mr. Bierk, who was suffering from leukemia, died
                          of pneumonia, said Nancy Hoffman, his New York
                          dealer.

                          Mr. Bierk worked in the postmodern genre, in which
                          images and forms appropriated from art history and
                          the mass media are juxtaposed to prompt
                          philosophical reflections on art, modern culture and
                          history.
                          He painted copies of works by artists like Vermeer
                          or the Hudson River School painter Frederic Edwin
                          Church, for example, and framed them within broad
                          steel panels, setting up a tension between humanism
                          and old masterly craft on the one hand, and
                          Modernist abstraction and industrial fabrication on
                          the other.
                          Most recently, he was working on a series of copies
                          of late floral still lifes by Manet, which he set within
                          steel or concrete frames.

Born in Appleton, Minnesota, on June 9, 1944, Mr.Bierk grew up in Lafayette, California, near San Francisco. In 1972, he received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Humboldt State University, and in the same year he moved to Peterborough to take a teaching job at Kenner Collegiate, a high school. Two years later, he founded a successful nonprofit art gallery called Artspace, for which he continued to serve as director until 1987. He became a Canadian citizen in 1978. Mr. Bierk's first marriage, to Kathleen Bierk, ended in divorce.He is survived by his wife, Liz; eight children, Sebastian Bach of Lincroft, New Jersey, the former lead singer for the rock group Skid Row; Heather Dylan of Toronto; Lisa Hare of Walnut Creek, California; Zac, Alexander, Jeffrey, Nicholas and Charles, all of Peterborough; and four grandchildren.