"Group of One"
It is 1971, and at the age of 16, this free spirited and
independent adventurer headed West hitchhiking across Canada with little more
then a backpack full of art supplies and an open mind. After spending a summer
exploring the West Coast, she hitchhiked back home to Toronto, only to return
to BC a year later. Dania made Richmond Island her home, studied at the
Vancouver School of Art and spent the next few years absorbed in the beautiful
landscapes, rich native cultures and the slower paced lifestyle that BC had to
offer.
Ready for the next chapter in her life, the Toronto art
scene was ‘where it was all happening’ and Dania was on her way. She was
accepted at the prestigious Ontario College of Art on a grant. Not one to
conform, Dania used the grant money to purchase more art supplies and spent the
next 2 years auditing classes of her choice at OCA. It was there that she met
Graham Coughtry and Gordon Rayner; these successful artists became mentors who
inspired Dania with their unique approach to art.
Her next move forward was to attend George Brown College
where she studied commercial art. She started working as a graphic designer
and, although talented with this linear style of painting, her heart remained
in her own freestyle of art.
It was around this time that Dania met her future husband,
Al Lerman, a multi-instrumental musician and vocalist; he is the bandleader of
the successful group known as Fathead. This began a decade of travel, live
music and the birth of a new series of paintings for Dania. Great blues
musicians like Muddy Waters, Lightnin Hopkins and Big Bill Bronzy inspired a
collection whereby Dania sketched the artist during the live performance, capturing
the energy and the essence of the moment, then at home, while listening to
their music, she added watercolour and oil pastels to finish the piece. The
success of this group of paintings was displayed during solo art shows, one at
the ‘Squeeze Club’ which also led to interviews on CBC’s Sunday Arts and
Entertainment and Bravo’s Talkin’ Blues.
Dania was once again ready for a change. She described her
need to ‘stretch out, get out of her comfort zone and move forward. Painting
the same thing again and again feels repetitive after awhile - change feels
exciting. I need to change to be true to myself’. However, life had a different
plan. Al and Dania found their aging parents needed help. Her father was
suffering from bone cancer and required home care, so Dania was there. After
her father died, her mother needed her. ‘When you take care of your parents,
you really learn that the most important things in life are love and
compassion’.
Dania speaks passionately about her life work, its changes,
and challenges and focuses on ‘directing energy into something positive’. In
Toronto she led art workshops for Youth Without Shelter, a program offering a
safe and supportive environment where kids could come and eat nutritious food
and accomplish something positive. She believes in feeding the artist both
inside and out, with good food, confidence and the skills they need to find
their own way. Although she admits the work can be emotionally exhausting, it
is good, healing work. ‘Art saved me. It was there through thick and thin, and
has been a positive focus of my energy’.
Her collections are varied, using many different styles and
mediums. Her work reflects her inspirations including the Group of Seven, the
Impressionists, aboriginal art and many more. Painting for Dania is a dance.
‘It leads a little bit, then you lead – you work at it, then you put it away,
it goes back and forth’.
Today, we find Dania and Al living in the country, where the
artists are inspired by the beautiful landscapes there. Their home was built by
the river and designed for environmentally sustainable living. They are
surrounded by wildlife which is inspiring Dania’s next stage in the creative
process; ‘the animals are coming’.
See the article published in the Winter Solstice 2012 http://www.the-link.ca/
And see more of Dania at her very own website http://www.daniaspaintings.com/
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