Dana grew up in Kirkland, Washington in the 1950’s & 60’s, and graduated from Western Washington University in 1981 with a concentration in Art & Psychology which culminated in a degree in Human Services.

Dana has explored a variety of approaches to mixed media, printmaking and painting, often in resonance to the Abstract Expressionist style and Pacific Northwest/Asian themes of her childhood. She was brought up to be involved in the visual arts and dance.

Dana co-owned an art gallery and networked the arts as a Human Services entity in the 1980’s, but it wasn’t until the 1990’s that her love of art making and study of the psyche came back together to take shape. She studied and received her massage license in 1993 and began a process of curiosity and observation that has continued into the present. All of her work since 1998 speaks of a fascination with reoccurring shapes and themes in nature and in the nature of the psyche. Dana is curious about the stories and dreams happening under the surface of “ordinary” life, inside of our bodies, and inside of our experiences with each other.

She is interested in the relationship between things that are supposedly unrelated. She is interested in themes related to healing. She has collected beach stones for years, whose hieroglyphics mirror the experiences and symptoms described to her by her massage clients and friends. She collects dream stories and notes how often the dreams of others travel seamlessly beside her own. She is interested in creative collaborations that endeavor to demonstrate this ongoing call and response.

She is interested in finding ways to bring these themes of interrelatedness and kinship out into the world and the world’s concerns.

Curriculum Vitae
Artist’s Statement