I first drafted a few of these poems as long ago as 50 years, when I branched out from landscape painting into poetry, expanding the direct observation of my surroundings from the visual to the verbal.
The book divides distinctly into 3 thematic sections: poems about the arts, animals, old age. Arts comprises Visual, Musical, Literary. Visual is dominated by 17th Century Dutch, the first painters to focus on landscape for its own sake, and also raised portraiture to new levels. Also included are my contemporary fellow realist painters.
Next come examples of Music that have touched me deeply, from work-gang chants heard as a child, to Appalachian folk songs which helped introduce me to real-life emotions, to the sane life material as expanded by Bach and Beethoven.
The Literary section touches mainly on poets who became important to me, and have remained so. The one non-poet is F. Scott Fitzgerald, who, for no logical reason that I could find, is buried in my hometown. This poem reflects on the theme of becoming estranged from one's origins.

Animal Industry is the next section, being observations of creatures going about their natural lives or being hunted by us. On this theme is a poem about the 17th Century beaver trade in New England.

Sunset, the title of the book's final section, has a two-fold meaning. My wife and I see a sunset every day of the year from the 4th floor studio where we live. Secondly, I'm in the sunset years. I write about being careful in walking, about over-thinking every physical and mental move while still maintaining a creative life. The conclusion of every sunset is, of course, darkness, though not, in terms of a lifetime, before arriving at a broad view of the world beyond the personal.

"I have been pleased to publish David Campbell's poetry in several issues of my publication since 2003, and happy to see two of them - 'Work' and 'Doctor King and the Expatriate'- included in his fine new collection, Arts and Animals. This collection focuses on such interests as artists he's appreciated, animals, and a concluding section on senior life. A visual artist himself, David is especially adept at wordplay, striking images, and strong musicality ('end-of-winter pine cones / gnawed to tattered spines / in squirrelish desperation'). From the subjects he chooses to the channeling of his thoughts into these poems, David guides us 'in my rootedness, having yet to find/ in the arrowing future a longing back / to a landscape maintained in the unsettled / heart and breath by music.' Readers will savor the journey, and his stops along the way."
-David Messineo
Publisher/Poetry Editor
Sensations Magazine

David Campbell is an artist and graphic designer who has worked extensively in promoting and supporting the comic book artform and culture in Ireland. He founded 2D, the NI Comics Festival (2007-2013), which was Ireland's longest running annual comic event. He then founded ComicCity in 2015, a festival celebrating comics & creative arts, which ran until 2018. He previously worked extensively with schools and colleges teaching about art and illustration. He was Art Director for the Celtronic music festival, from 2001 to 2015. He currently works as a designer for Games Workshop, home of Warhammer and Lord of the Rings.
Victoria McCollum is an internationally recognised educator and researcher from Ulster University who writes books on films, TV shows and video games (especially horror), to explain why popular culture matters in helping us gain a deeper understanding of our moment in time. She has collaborated on projects with Apple, Cartoon Network, Cinemax, Facebook, HBO, New Line Cinema, RTE, Sky Atlantic, Telltale Games, Time Warner, Twitter and Universal Music Group.
Andrew Sneddon is the leading expert on the history of the Islandmagee witch trial of 1711, and has published widely on Irish witchcraft and magic, including four books. He has spent the last decade taking the untold story of the Islandmagee witches and Irish witchcraft to new, diverse, international audiences. He has worked with numerous libraries, archives, museums, community, educational, and women's groups, and regularly appears on local and national TV and Radio, including BBC, ITV, TG4 and RTE. Between 2016 and 2021, he was historical consultant on the first 6 part series dedicated to Irish witchcraft, 'Diabhal Inti (The Devil's in Her), produced by Lagan Media. He is the President of Ireland's oldest professional historical society, Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies.
www.w1711.org