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Artist StatementI speak in several dialects of visual language. When I'm painting in oil and cold wax, I love adding thick layers of paint, and then going back in and scraping part of it away, revealing remnants of an earlier layer. I often begin my paintings with a coating of plaster, which allows me the immediate gratification of an initial layer of texture upon which I can build. I love making marks using oil pigment sticks, graphite, or by scratching into the surface with a knife or the pointed end of an awl. As an abstract painter, I paint intuitively, laying down paint in bold swaths of color, then going back in and refining the composition, finding the story buried in the paint. When you look at something I have created, I want you to wonder about its previous life, to feel like you're on an archeological dig, getting a glimpse beneath the surface, but never the full story. I'm also a collector, energized by hunting for materials to use in my art, especially old worn out objects and ephemera. When I see a beat up vintage tin or discover a rusty piece of metal, I hyperventilate a bit. I'm excited about the opportunity to give new life to these cast off, expendable objects. By combining old wood, plaster, paint, and found objects, I create vignettes that tell a story. |
BioDayna works and shows her art in the Pacific Northwest. She is a gallery artist at Guardino Gallery in Portland and RiverSea Gallery in Astoria. Dayna has had three solo shows at Guardino Gallery and regularly participates in their group shows. She tried her hand at gallery ownership for a year, ending in the fall of 2016, when she realized the administrative tasks took her away from painting. Dayna is a member of the the Portland Art Collective, Salem Art Association, Artists in Action, and is a founding member of the Salem Art Group. Her work can be seen in several published books: Art for Everyone, a Chemeketa Community College textbook, Oil and Cold Wax by Serena Barton, Art Abandonment by Michael and Andrea deMeng, The Mixed-Media Artist by Seth Apter, and in Rebecca Croweell and Jerry McLaughlin's Cold Wax Medium. Dayna teaches on the west coast; a plaster class titled Layers of Memory, an oil and cold wax class titled Abstracted Play, a collage/found object class titled What's Your Story: Real or Imagined, and a variety of workshops ranging from Matchbox Shrines to an ongoing prayer flag project she calls Scattered By the Wind. In addition to painting, Dayna uses found objects and recycled metal to create Funky Junkyard Birds and uses beat up wood, plaster, paint, and rusty bits to create a series of Curious Elements. Born in a Navy hospital in Seattle, but raised an Oregonian, Dayna has always been a creative, energetic, organized, flexible thinker, yet full of design and art. She came to art 15 years ago as a result of introspection through The Artist's Way, a book on creative recovery by Julia Cameron. Trained as an historian and counselor, Dayna dove into her art by taking class after class, working in various mediums, challenging herself to find artist expressions that reflect her eclectic approach to art and life. |