Dan's current paintings are influenced by his recent travels through Europe. He typically employs alternative, often organic materials like wax, tar, wood, and fabric to achieve a more elemental and tactile quality in his work. These works are created using deep supports, like boxes, which stand out from the wall and assert themselves in the viewer's space. In many cases, the physical qualities of the work are meant to suggest the physical weightiness associated with monuments and memorial sculpture. The exploration of ideas about memory, history, and the passage of time is an important part of the work. Collaged materials, including heavy fabrics and printed matter, contribute to the initial surface of the paintings. After this weathered, heavily worked, abstract surface is established, it is sealed in a layer of beeswax, and the more figurative elements of the imagery are rendered in tar and varnish. The organic qualities of the wood, wax, and tar communicate a feeling of timelessness. The processes of building, weathering, eroding and layering are important to the work's identity -- it creates a history that can be traced, investigated, and experienced by the viewer. The materials and processes used emphasize the paintings as visceral objects with an evocative physical presence. ![]() The Weight of Mortal Hours Oil, wax, tar, on wood. 54x42x6 |
All work: oil, collage, beeswax, and tar on wood constructions.
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