Dan is one of our ‘The Exquisite Familiar’ artists. ‘The Exquisite Familiar’ is an Access2Arts project that sees a group of eleven South Australian disabled artists, both emerging and established, working together through multiple workshops and mediums to create powerful collaborative art. This art is then exhibited at the Art Gallery of South Australia and MOD., placing disabled artists firmly and proudly in prominent institutions.
What was your inspiration for your uncanny creature?
I was inspired by the tin man from the wizard of OZ
As he’s got thick skin which is very much like me throughout Life and as an artist you have to develop thick skin and be able to deal with rejection strangely enough my child hood at school where I was the stupid kid most of the time gave me a lot of practice
So that now not much bothers me I just keep marching forward nothing will stop me
On the Inside though I’m a big softy
Tell me a bit about yourself and your art practice.
I was born in 1986 in Birmingham, England, and migrated to South Australia in 2004 with my mom dad and two brothers Where I studied a Bachelor of visual communication at the university of south Australia and since leaving in 2007 I have worked as a visual artist I mostly paint but I also recently started to make lino prints I have also done some mural work around Adelaide to
Where do you find inspiration?
Everywhere all the time really Idea’s just come to me out of nowhere I’m a bit of a Day dreamer It drives my girlfriend crazy I’m always floating off Day dreaming that’s where most of my Ideas come from
How does your disability influence your craft?
In my mind Dyslexia really is a creative super power I have found over the years as you see the world slightly differently but it comes with its downsides mostly being a terrible at righting and spelling
What food, drink, or song inspires you?
Im a big Fan of Johnny cash, I love the Narrative elements within his lyrics
But it mostly depends on the mood I’m in If I need to get some work done listening to the prodigy or Metal gets me working
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Read more of The Exquisite Familiar artist interviews here.
On the Artist Interview page Access2Arts asks an interviewer to talk to an artist.
An interview is a conversation where the interviewer asks questions and the person answering is called the interviewee.
The interviewer’s job is to find out about the artist called the interviewee.
To do this, the interviewer asks lots of questions.
The interviewer gives Access2Arts a great story about the artist and we put it on our website.
The interviews can be written for you to read.
Recorded so you can listen to the interview.
On video so you can watch the interview.
Sometimes the interviewer gets very creative. The interview is like art!