Artist Statement
Making art is a necessity for me. My mind is always going and I usually have way more ideas than I have time to create. Most of the time that works out well, as when I do have the time and I have thought about something for a good long while, the work just flows.
I really enjoy creating art from found objects. Perhaps this goes back to my college days when I had to be very thrifty. I remember walking home from classes picking up beer cans to recycle for gas money. I hate to see things go to waste. At home we recycle almost everything and grow much of our own food.
I work in many media and enjoy them all. In part, this is because all art is fun and interrelated. It is also in part due to that I am the only art teacher for Okanogan Middle and High School. I try to make many artistic experiences available to my students. I really like the assignments I give my students and end up doing many of them myself.
Much of my art is nature related. Nature is what I grew up with. I had the best childhood imaginable. I grew up on US Fish and Wildlife refuges and loved exploring them. I have a BS in Wildlife Biology and a masters in Education. I enjoy fishing and hunting. My family and I use our many kayaks and camping gear as much as possible. We ski and snowboard about 3 times a week in the winter. My very first and favorite wildlife artist was and still is Robert Bateman. I also love the moods, subjects, composition, and depth of the watercolors of Thomas Aquinas Daly.
In addition to nature, I love exploring other cultures. I have been fortunate to be able to travel on 6 of the 7 continents and worked in Paraguay and Thailand as well as living here. The most recent adventure was walking the Camino de Santiago. I recommend it for anyone. We did it for health and art reasons, but you end up enjoying the other people, the good food, and the spiritual aspects too.
I like to add interest to my work by sometimes adding humor and unusual juxtapositions. Sometimes I wonder if my purpose is evident to others or am I the only one to get a kick out of it. I consider myself fortunate to have spent time with Richard Beyer, whose foundry is in a nearby town. Hopefully his good humor and sense of humor has rubbed off a little bit. While I have not met him, I have always loved the color and fish humor of Ray Troll. Of course, the surrealists Rene' Magritte and Salvador Dali have shown me how to use juxtaposition.
I am very proud of my students and their work. Eleven of them have been selected as making the some of the best student art in the state and have had their work purchased by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Their work is on permanent display in the Old Capitol Building in Olympia. Okanogan High School has a great permanent student art collection. My students have created a sculpture garden that includes a cast aluminum dodo bird that procalims "Read. Don't be a Dodo.", a gecko climbing up the wall, a welded iguana relaxing on a street light, a 7' long cast aluminum humpback whale swimming through the shrubs , and much more. The inside of the school is full of drawings, paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, and mosaics. In 2001 the Washington Art Educators' Association selected me as the high school art teacher of the year. (You can see some of their work by going to www.oksd.wednet.edu; go to staff pages and click on Dan Brown.) You can see more of my student work at www.artsonia.com. Go to Okanogan High School, Okanogan, WA. I earned a Golden Apple from KCTS 9 and Pemco Insurance. You can see more of my students' work at their website http://kcts9.org/education/golden-apple-awards/winners#dan-brown .
My family has chosen Okanogan, Washington to live because of the small size and the many close outdoor activities. It is a good choice.
You may contact me at 509 422-5024. As my teaching year is very busy and the rest of the year we try to be outside, I am sometimes slow in responding. I thank you ahead of time for your patience. I now have tee-shirts and coffee cups with my art on them for sale at http://www.zazzle.com/danbrownartwork
I really enjoy creating art from found objects. Perhaps this goes back to my college days when I had to be very thrifty. I remember walking home from classes picking up beer cans to recycle for gas money. I hate to see things go to waste. At home we recycle almost everything and grow much of our own food.
I work in many media and enjoy them all. In part, this is because all art is fun and interrelated. It is also in part due to that I am the only art teacher for Okanogan Middle and High School. I try to make many artistic experiences available to my students. I really like the assignments I give my students and end up doing many of them myself.
Much of my art is nature related. Nature is what I grew up with. I had the best childhood imaginable. I grew up on US Fish and Wildlife refuges and loved exploring them. I have a BS in Wildlife Biology and a masters in Education. I enjoy fishing and hunting. My family and I use our many kayaks and camping gear as much as possible. We ski and snowboard about 3 times a week in the winter. My very first and favorite wildlife artist was and still is Robert Bateman. I also love the moods, subjects, composition, and depth of the watercolors of Thomas Aquinas Daly.
In addition to nature, I love exploring other cultures. I have been fortunate to be able to travel on 6 of the 7 continents and worked in Paraguay and Thailand as well as living here. The most recent adventure was walking the Camino de Santiago. I recommend it for anyone. We did it for health and art reasons, but you end up enjoying the other people, the good food, and the spiritual aspects too.
I like to add interest to my work by sometimes adding humor and unusual juxtapositions. Sometimes I wonder if my purpose is evident to others or am I the only one to get a kick out of it. I consider myself fortunate to have spent time with Richard Beyer, whose foundry is in a nearby town. Hopefully his good humor and sense of humor has rubbed off a little bit. While I have not met him, I have always loved the color and fish humor of Ray Troll. Of course, the surrealists Rene' Magritte and Salvador Dali have shown me how to use juxtaposition.
I am very proud of my students and their work. Eleven of them have been selected as making the some of the best student art in the state and have had their work purchased by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Their work is on permanent display in the Old Capitol Building in Olympia. Okanogan High School has a great permanent student art collection. My students have created a sculpture garden that includes a cast aluminum dodo bird that procalims "Read. Don't be a Dodo.", a gecko climbing up the wall, a welded iguana relaxing on a street light, a 7' long cast aluminum humpback whale swimming through the shrubs , and much more. The inside of the school is full of drawings, paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, and mosaics. In 2001 the Washington Art Educators' Association selected me as the high school art teacher of the year. (You can see some of their work by going to www.oksd.wednet.edu; go to staff pages and click on Dan Brown.) You can see more of my student work at www.artsonia.com. Go to Okanogan High School, Okanogan, WA. I earned a Golden Apple from KCTS 9 and Pemco Insurance. You can see more of my students' work at their website http://kcts9.org/education/golden-apple-awards/winners#dan-brown .
My family has chosen Okanogan, Washington to live because of the small size and the many close outdoor activities. It is a good choice.
You may contact me at 509 422-5024. As my teaching year is very busy and the rest of the year we try to be outside, I am sometimes slow in responding. I thank you ahead of time for your patience. I now have tee-shirts and coffee cups with my art on them for sale at http://www.zazzle.com/danbrownartwork