ARTIST STATEMENT

Presently located in Felton in the Santa Cruz Mountains, it is in this setting that Dana became a full-time painter. Her images describe an ordinary setting that need a voice to reveal what is hidden below the surface and she states: "In my studio, I work from multiple images or lead with an intention.  If I’m working from images, I try not to let them  speak too loudly. It is merely a drop off point and I want to let the paint speak and let the painting tell me what it wants. The canvas gets subjected to many applications of paint layers and excavation using brush, palette knife, charcoal and oil stick. The canvas becomes a very active and physical space. The partnership between the artist and the viewer is, in this way, both spacious and intimate. My work has become as much about the paint being subject matter as the subject matter.”

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MORE ABOUT DANA

Born in Kansas City and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Dana was attracted by the color and texture of the milieu in which she grew up. She was drawn to the internal fabric of the Southwest. It sparked a burning invitation for her to draw and paint. There was an undercurrent of life that she felt was present but not obvious to the eye.  Dana's subject is primarily the figure in seascape, landscape or interior, but the paint itself is also subject matter.

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Dana employs a variety of techniques to achieve a painted surface that is rich with texture, color and emotion. Her paint application is thick with impasto and rich color. Dana’s figures provide a catalyst to express the undercurrents of the human experience and living in a human body. It is an internal landscape that is characterized in her painting. 

 

She states that she has had good mentors from high school at Los Llanos School of Arts and Crafts, to studying art at Cabrillo College, University of California at Santa Cruz, and a private mentor for 15 years that is an Abstract Expressionist painter. Dana has developed an intimate understanding of the nature and behavior of the painting process with all its varied nuances.