Dan Chen: Work In Progress... his artistic journey

How do you describe a Dan Chen? A Renaissance Man? The dictionary defines this as "A person of broad intellectual and cultural interests, encompassing the full spectrum of available knowledge, an ideal man posessing universal knowledge." Actually there were few men even during the Renaissance, who could be classified such, and usually they were carefully shielded from the realities of life. No, for Dan Chen we would have to invent a new word.

Here is a man who at one time created twelve full sized pastels of all the animals in the Chinese calendar over the period of just one weekend! This is a man who travels 6000 miles a year to show his work and then, at each show, gives demonstrations of his techniques, whether in pastels, pottery or raku. Or he may allow you to watch the sculpting of one of his many animal creations. Fluent in both Chinese and English, he teaches a night course of the local University and introduces art to a group of youngsters at his daughter´s school. He researches the development of babies to illustrate a book on neurology and supervises the reproductions of his bronze sculptures. In between he finds time to help his children with their first attempts at making clay figures, installs a waterfall in the front of his house and, in the backyard, puts a hothouse for his Bonsai collection and a playground complete with slides and sandbox for his and the neighbors´ children. Then, to top it all off, with the help of his friends - of whom he has many - builds a 500 square foot studio - one wall all glassed in for daylight and with huge light fixtures in the ceiling so that he can work through the night!

Because Dan is a modest man, it has taken several years to persuade him to create this book. Chen has not even yet lived out half his life span and, never fully satisfied, he insists on calling it - Work in Progress. When asked if he wanted to be known as painter, ceramicist or sculptor, he simply said - artist.

No - we would have to invent a new phrase to describe him. Phenomenon of the 21st Century? Perhaps in the future if another such man could be found, someone might simply say: "Oh, he's a real Dan Chen!"

BOOK / 2003 / color / ISBN 0-961532-9-7
Hardbound, illus. 10x11. 100p. Published by Fern Ridge Press
$24.95

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Dan Chen Biography

Dan Chen was born in China, in the province of Canton. Dan's love affair with art began when at age three, he peered above the table top in breathless fascination at the magic which seemed to flow from his father's paint brush and then tried to imitate him. When Dan was 15, a more formal instruction in a structured setting was needed. Dan was introduced to master artists who familiarized with him varied painting techniques and helped hone his artistic observation skills. For over five years Dan worked under the critical eyes of his mentors, before he was finally allowed to display his art at a state show. There, he won the first of many awards, this one for outstanding technical ability in Chinese watercolor painting on silk.

Dan immigrated with his parents to the United States in 1984. There, Dan enrolled at San Francisco City College and studied graphic design and illustration at Academy of Art University. After three years of schooling, Dan started his own business, creating unusual ceramic art, which quickly became distributed through such outlets as Gump's, Macys, Bloomingdale and other prestigious stores. Even though his thriving business distributed as many as 500 various ceramic creations all over the U.S., Dan found that the demands of running such a large enterprise not only took too much time from his family, but did not allow him to explore the entire spectrum of his skills. Determined to start over, he simply walked away from his business and began a new life in Eugene, Oregon.

Since that time, Dan's professional career has begun focusing full-time on nature and wildlife art in both paintings and sculptures. A solid foundation in many art forms has allowed him to perfect his own particular methods. Dan's experience with the eastern and western disciplines of art has provided the inspiration for the extremely pleasing and dramatic style he has developed. Whether the media is oil, pastel, watercolor or sculpture, each piece Dan creates is an exquisite and masterful expression of line, color, light and energy which is truly his own. The art of Dan Chen is a marriage of the finest qualities of eastern and western art style and technique. Dan is a Signature member of SAA (The Society of Animal Artists) and received two Award of Excellence medals in both two dimensional and three dimensional works in the Society Annual Exhibition which is presently on tour with various museums in the United States. Dan now resides in Eugene, Oregon.

Published By
Fern Ridge Press
email frp@thinkvideo.com
1430 Willamette St. #149, Eugene, OR 97401
Phone (541) 463-8100

Dan Chen: Work In Progress... his artistic journey

Dan Chen Biography

Published By Fern Ridge Press email frp@thinkvideo.com 1430 Willamette St. #149, Eugene, OR 97401 Phone (541) 463-8100

Published By
Fern Ridge Press
email frp@thinkvideo.com
1430 Willamette St. #149, Eugene, OR 97401
Phone (541) 463-8100