David A. Cherry



David A. Cherry (December 14, 1949 ) is an American artist, primarily in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He has been nominated eleven times for Hugo Awards, and 18 times for Chesley Awards (with 8 wins), and he is a past president of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists.

Cherry is the brother of the science fiction writer C. J. Cherryh ("Cherry" is the original spelling of the last name of the family), and has painted cover art for some of her books as well as books by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Sean Dalton, Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey (Thieves' World series) and Piers Anthony.

Cherry graduated from high school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where his sister, noted above, was his Latin teacher. He also took art classes in high school.

He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a B.A. then earned his law degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law and was admitted to the bar in Oklahoma. He began working for a law firm that specialized in regulations affecting the trucking industry. When this industry was deregulated by the U.S. government, he found his law skills less marketable. Cherry had sold his first professional work in 1980 and by 1982 was working as a lawyer part-time. In 1984, he made the decision to try to make a living doing work he really enjoyed, drawing and painting and left his law practice.

The book Imagination: The Art & Technique of David A. Cherry (1987, ISBN 0-89865-564-1) is a collection of Cherry's own work and description of his techniques, and was nominated for a Hugo Award for best non-fiction book in 1988.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, Cherry began illustrating in the gaming insustry, including cards for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game and computer games. He left Oklahoma in 2000 and began working full-time for Microsoft, creating the marketing art for Age of Mythology.

Cherry was the Artist Guest of Honor at ConJosé, the 60th World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, California in 2002.

Cherry has two children and lives and works near Dallas, Texas.