Art Chowder November | December, Issue 18 | Page 13

Art Chowder: Yes it does. So, how do you find your mural spaces?
daniel: There’s a few different ways that’s come about. I’ve scouted
walls during walks and talked to business owners. People hear about
me through word of mouth and seek me out. Sometimes work finds me
just by talking to people.
Art Chowder: You said you did some studying on your own. Were you a
library kid?
daniel: No, I watch a lot of biographies and videos about artists. I try
to take the good out of their stories, not the bad. Because the masters,
the ones that are truly devoted, have some kind of hang-up that pushed
them to do or make a certain kind of art. So I just learn from that. I’ll
use my sketchbook and do copies of old works. You’d be surprised how
much you can learn from studying their light sources.
That’s kind of why I fell in love with fine art. Because I can study at my
own pace and nobody is going to push me, but me.
Art Chowder: All right. You’ve occasionally worked with youth in our
community. What drove you to work with kids and what were some of
your favorite experiences with them?
daniel: I’ve been extremely fortunate to be asked into schools to talk
to the kids. InTec in Spokane Valley was awesome. I got to speak to a
few classes and give a demonstration. Pride Prep was awesome too,
and the kids were fun to work with. Julie Shepard-Hall, president of
the Garland Business District also set up a mural painting with some
Excelsior students. No one knew how it would go, but they did great.
As for what drove me — I got an approval to do the Altamont project
and had to wait two months between approval and painting. During
that period I was passing up jobs, waiting, starving, and didn’t know
when this thing was going to start. Then one day I’m sitting at the bus
stop thinking, “ I’m just going to go get a regular job, get a regular
paycheck from someplace, so I know what’s coming in and going
out.” And then I thought, “Well, what causes an artist to be successful
and what causes an artist to be a failure?” I figured a lot of times the
business side quenches that artistic fire. And then I thought, “Maybe I
can look into passing the torch.”
I reached out to Gonzaga’s Art Department in winter 2016 and spoke
to Shalon Baker, Associate Professor and Chair of the Art Department,
about coming in to talk to the classes about being a working artist. She
passed my name along to Laura Carpenter Truitt, Assistant Professor
of Art. I was planning to go in and just talk about what I do, how I
made it, and how I’m pushing through all the business stuff, but Laura
asked what I thought about the students painting something. I thought
that was great, so we worked on some designs and arranged a date to
do a mural. Ten students were there and when we got together they all
just started painting. It was amazing! That moment was what it is all
about. They all worked hard and were really fun to be around. I think
that was my favorite because I got to interact with the kids more and
encourage them towards the arts.
A couple of them are friends with me on Facebook
and recently one of them commented that the
project we did was one of the highlights of his
senior year. That was awesome, because even
though I knew we were all having fun out there, you
never know how important it is to someone else.
Art Chowder: True. So, what advice would you
give to young artists just getting started?
daniel: There’s a huge value in the way that we
as artists see the world. We’re all unique. We
shape what cultures see as beautiful and we
are of huge importance. It’s not pointless even
though at times it may seem like it. Also personal
time and devotion, refining and harnessing your
craft should be always at the forefront of your
mind. Experimenting making bad art, in order to
eventually make good art is expected and okay. Not
every idea is amazing. And that’s okay too.
November |December 2018
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