Danae Stone: Creative & Teacher
Life Experience
I began my art practice as a child and always found myself drawn to creating and making with many different mediums, the earliest being abstracts with oil pastel, pencil sketches, eventually evolving into grid drawing for realism, abstract painting, sharpie doodling, sculpture, silk-screening, etc.
In my adolescence, not only did I find solace in art, but also in writing. By the time I was 20, I had a rather telling collection of poems that helped me express my soulful, emotional self as I learned to navigate life. I still own the battered thesaurus I kept at hand whenever the mood to write struck me.
I earned an Art Education degree from the University of Lethbridge in 2009 and have now been an art teacher for over 10 years, fostering creative passion in our next generation, while also dabbling in my own art practice with many different mediums and modes of creating. I love collaboration and find myself ever-busy with creative projects.
For years, my soul has been sustained by creativity, and I want to share that passion and this body of work with the world.
My own creative process is most often inspired by nature, colour theory, and meditations on life's purpose and what it means to be human.
The elements of balance and liberation seem to entwine their way into my work, and I am often left surprised by the way creativity is captivating, symbiotic, and invigorates life with purpose and authentic expression.
Flow Mediums
I feel connected while creating by any means, and I have worked in paper, print, pencil, paint, sharpie, photo, and sculpture.
My education as a student and experience as a teacher has allowed me to develop my talent across mediums. The ones I find flow most easily in are pencil and sharpie, though I love the feel of paint on my fingers and the visual bliss of mixed colour.
To the right are the sharpie drawings that I did with my partner, Dave, his ending up more fluid, colourful, and smoothly drawn while mine is more jagged and sharp. An interesting contrast in style.
My process reflects the random abstract nature of my personality, and my best work is usually freely expressive without limitations. Sometimes, I skip the pencil and start with sharpie, or pull out a canvas and paint on the floor. Sometimes skin is my canvas of choice. Whatever it takes to get the creative juices flowing!
When I enter that wonderful state of flow, I play with the intricate complexities of colour theory, shape, and line, and suddenly I am captivated by the process. The art I produce embodies that playful way of making and creating that we somehow forget to practice as we age in this life.
Inspiration
My earliest inspiration came from artists like M.C. Escher and Kandinsky, and I resonate with the work of Frida Kahlo, Banksy, and Salvador Dali, but nature has always been the highest source of creative energy in my life.
Nature's symmetry, movement, and contrast keep my creative engine inspired with perfect, chaotic abstraction. I have developed a keen sense of organic forms, expressive colour mixing, and meandering, flowing movement in my art-making. My practice continues to grow and evolve.
My partner, Dave Smythe, brings into my life an entirely new form of work, and his resonance with symmetrical geometry melded with my abstract expressionistic vibration inspires our practice, together building a meaningful and memorable body of work and a creative lifestyle we thrive in.
Thank you for your presence here to witness for us and for believing in creating and making this life the best it can be.
To the left is a photograph I took of a leaf with three water droplets on them from a storm the night before. In a video I took, you can see swirling inside each droplet and a different colour reflected back.
Nature is incredible.