Ahead of his exhibition Faces of Time at New Concept Gallery in Santa Fe, Daniel D Stine spoke with Jamie McLaren about his influences and meticulous line work.
Artists often build their style on a foundation of early inspirations. When you look back, which historical figures, or artistic styles, were most pivotal?
As a kid, I was really into detailed pencil drawings, and, in contrast, looser impressionistic paintings. I loved the precision and imagination of M.C. Escher and Leonardo da Vinci, the melancholy of Picasso’s Blue Period, and Van Gogh’s poignancy. With paint, it felt natural focusing on the emotions that colors reveal. With pencil, it was the meditative process of tedious detail that revealed its beauty after it was completed and viewed as a whole.
The tension I see between your meticulous line work and emotional color is striking. Tell me about your art education and how formal study may have helped in synthesizing those two dynamics?
I received a scholarship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. There, I began to incorporate the same level of detail into my oil paintings as I had in my drawings. I leaned into working on one painting for as long as possible. Those earlier works seem like psychedelic fever dreams. As I refined my technique, I was able to tamp down the chaos and articulate the feeling I was trying to convey. Sometimes a little chaos is good, but it hits better if it’s localized and controlled. Landscapes lend themselves to this type of exploration.
You rent a studio in Santa Fe. How does “The City Different” shape your rhythm, and what happens when you hit a wall on a difficult piece?
Painting is meditative. Both the physicality of the act and the gestalt of conceptualizing a composition. A ritual and a puzzle. I start with an idea and see where it takes me. Hiking and nature are important inspirational catalysts for each painting, and within each is its own odyssey. It’s up and down. Sometimes I paint for ten hours, loving everything. Other times I sit for days, disliking everything. I keep going though. It usually works out. When I’m down, I try to at least look over a work for a bit. Next, it’s literally lighting candles, putting on a record, and opening a bottle of wine knowing I’ll be painting all night.
There’s a striking duality in your paintings; they feel intensely personal, yet viewers often project their interpretations into the shapes. How do you balance painting for yourself with the open-ended interpretations the audience brings to the canvas?
I’d rather provoke a strong reaction, even a negative one, than leave someone unmoved. I primarily paint for myself. There’s a feeling that my paintings are love songs to artists that I admire; living and deceased. I jokingly call my compositions Rorschach tests: building strange shapes and patterns, letting the viewer’s perspective take over. I enjoy people telling me the various creatures or forms they find. Oh, you see a witch riding a wolf? …yes, that’s what it is (for you).
You had early critical success after art school, including accolades in Chicago and studying in Prague, but you eventually stepped away to work a desk job before returning to art full-time in Santa Fe. What caused that shift, and how did stepping away help you rediscover the core reason you create?
I stopped for a few years. After I graduated, I had shows in Chicago and studied a bit in Prague at the Academy of Fine Arts. I received a write-up by the art critic Lori Waxman. I was doing a lot but became disillusioned. In retrospect, I lost the reason why I created; everything felt forced, so I stopped. I eventually started painting again for myself. A friend suggested I show at a local brewpub and I sold everything. More shows followed and I won the Gold Prize at the Scarab Club in Detroit. Moving to Santa Fe, I was accepted into Art Santa Fe and found representation on Canyon Road. Now I paint full time and it feels natural. Like it did when I was a kid.
Daniel D Stine’s exhibition of new works Faces of Time opens October 16 and runs through November 16 at New Concept Gallery in Santa Fe.
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