Daniel Dallman
Precarious Monument, 2016
Oil on linen
17-1/4 x 13-1/4"

Daniel Dallman's work is currently on view as part of By Simply Looking: The Art of Observation InLiquid at Park Towne Place.

Artist Statement
My life and my perceptions are the subjective drivers for the pictures I make. Making a painting is, for me, an exploratory process toward understanding, not an expository declaration of a position already held. Thus, I don't make pictures with a specific content in mind. I distrust intentions; mine more than anyone else's. Far more important is the subjective content that is revealed regardless of one's intentions. I have said that I start pictures with a hunch, just a positive feeling that a certain subject might be wonderful, or some composition interesting, or some quality of color special. (Maybe "wonderful," "interesting" and "special" could be called the intentions?) For me the content is discovered during the process, maybe developed further, but it is seldom known at the beginning. There is a deep satisfaction when a picture is finished and at that point I usually understand what kind of statement I have made.

Artist Bio
I grew up with art, and books, in the house: my father was a professional sculptor and my mother was a part time painter. I owe a great deal to the ambiance of that household, to my parents and to their encouragement; but above all to the books. There were so many books in that house, all kinds of books, encyclopediae and dictionaries, books on nature, music, literary classics and art. There were many years of National Geographics, which my father rescued from the trash during a public library clean-out. As a childI already knew a great deal of the work by Rodin, Velasquez, Giotto and many others, although I couldn't properly pronounce their names.

Since then I have earned several degrees and I've taught in a major art school for many years. I discovered Caravaggio while living in Rome in 1974-76. And I rediscovered him again in 2001-03. I have had the good fortune to know, and learn from, many of my colleagues and all of my students. Yet when I began to write a short biographical sketch that included events significant to my career, I could not resist writing about that house in which I grew up, and all those books.

dallmannstudio.com

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