Professional Artist
As an artist, I paint quickly, intuitively, and work much of the surface at the same time. The tension of composition as well as the emotional and physical weight of a painting is important to me. I work to convey the ways we are connected and disconnected, and the relationships that tie us, and sometimes bind us, together. I’m continually drawn to represent the abstracted figure, using line and gesture drawing as foundation. I’ve paid particular attention to the question of where in the body the figure holds its “weight” (both literally and figuratively). I’m always asking the question: what story does the figure offer the viewer and what emotion does the image convey? I’m intrigued by where the story of the viewer and the story of the image converge. One of the main stories I find myself drawn to are the ways in which people become vulnerable, and how some find resiliency through the messiness of living, while others don’t. These themes led me to my other project where I help people find resiliency through creativity.
The Utah Resiliency Project
As a resiliency practitioner, I work with individuals who are trying to access underlying emotions through the process of creating art. People activate their innate ability to heal when they create and make, whether with words or images. The goal is to get at what’s eating you, or gotten into you, and get it out. I’ve found that working creatively, we can reach some of the non-verbal places where we’ve stashed our old pain. We can approach the scary feelings with a little more ease, and learn to understand, accept and even forgive some of the places we’ve been harmed. There’s unspoken permission to express all sides of our experience, even the dark parts, in art. When we are able to do that, we can truly break free of the ways we’ve learned to hold ourselves back, keep ourselves down, make ourselves smaller, and disconnect. We can break free of our shadow self, and find our true selves.
Contact my art representative:
Brian Seethaler 801-557-3537 bseethaler@gmail.com
Contact me for studio visit or to arrange resiliency session:
dhake50@gmail.com 801-815-2736, dhakeart.com, studio at the Baldwin Radio Factory #37