Witbeck was a free-lance photographer for twenty five years after graduating from Rhode Island School of Design where he studied fine art. Ten more years passed until the urge to paint returned. "The greatest joy I have as a painter is freedom from objective reality. I can bend, twist, stretch, exaggerate and simplify the things I see. I can completely make things up. I paint how things make me feel instead of simply what they look like". David Witbeck