By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Tucked along Wichita Street in Russell is a quirky, brightly painted little building.
The building is split into two sections. On one side is David Friday's art studio — the Friday Art Factory. On the other side sits a bright red barber chair, where the barber of more than 20 years cuts hair.
Friday's art is currently being exhibited at Professor's Sandwich Shop in Hays, which will be on view through March. He will be part of an exhibit with 11 other Kansas artists on the theme "story weather" at the Denies Cultural Center from April 16 to May 22.
He also has an upcoming exhibit in November 2022 at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Art Gallery in Lindsborg.
Friday lived in Russell and attended Russell High School as a teen. He moved back to the community five years ago to be near family.
Friday studied for a time at Wichita State University, but, for the most part, he is a self-taught artist.
He became a sign painter in the early '70s and eventually went into commercial graphic design. He worked in McPherson and later moved to Denver and San Diego.
He made the move to focus on fine art in 1981 and went to barber school in 1997.
"That was the best thing I ever did for my art career, because it keeps the rent paid," he said.
Friday said being a barber is also being an artist.
"Every haircut is a little sculpture," he said, "so there is a lot of satisfaction from just doing good work in doing someone's hair.
"What is probably most valuable to me is my people contact, because painting is an activity I do in a room by myself. It can be quite solitary and quite lonesome.
"Cutting hair is very social. You're talking to someone different every 15 minutes. Those two things really balance each other out well."
Being an artist and a barber also balance each other economically. Selling a painting is feast or famine, Friday explained, but his barber income is steady.
Friday's regulars at the barber shop know he's an artist, but newbees are often surprised when they walk in the shop/studio.
"They usually go, 'Wow! Who did all of these paintings?' " he said. "But now most of my customers know me, and they can see on the front of my building that I am both a barber and an artist."
Friday worked with his landlord to remodel the former lawnmower repair shop. The front door sports a painting of a chubby little man in a barber's chair. The inside also features many of Friday's paintings in both his studio and the barber shop.
Friday primarily works in acrylics and has an affinity for bright colors. He uses an acrylic compound made of crushed marble to add texture to many of his paintings.
He said his art is influenced by a little bit of everything.
"I'm influenced by nature. I'm influenced by other artists' work that I see," he said.
He honed his craft by copying other famous artists, including Picasso, Thomas Hart Benton, Birger Sandzén and Lester Raymer. Friday was an artists in residence at Raymer's Red Barn Studio in Lindsborg.
"I'm an untrained artist," he said. "Most of my learning has been learning by doing."
Friday said paintings of sunflowers, windmills and barns are in demand in Kansas, but he also likes to paint people.
"They are just characters that I make up, and they become friends when I'm painting them," he said.
Friday, 67, says he has no plans for retirement either from being a barber or his painting.
"I will do it as long as my body will let me," he said. ... "Picasso lived to 92 and painted until up to the day he died, so that is sort of my goal too — I make it to 92, and I'm still painting.
You can learn more about Friday on his Friday Art Factory Facebook page. If you are interested in purchasing a painting, you can contact Friday directly at 316-461-5004.
