We're not the only ones puzzled by the murky source of David Whittaker's particular genius. In a performance review at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) a few years back, an instructor described the quiet artist's work as "disturbingly, if not alarmingly, impressive," noting that his labor revealed a sensibility that is "over-familiar with the dark, a kind of dreamy, quasi-sadistic peculiarity that made it both memorable and worrisome."