Soulscapes

The Living Art of Daniel Nevins

It has been over a month since I visited the studio of painter Daniel Nevins. I’ve struggled to put words to my experience with his art. During my visit I lost all sense of time and space given the intimate experience with his vast paintings and left questioning myself in the process. So, I have needed time and space to distance myself and reflect. 

As a former Disney and Hallmark storyteller, the most intuitive way for me to provide you an empathetic experience of my time there is to walk you through a fictional tale of my own making. {As my psychologist you would be expecting this.}  Visualize that sometime in the distant future a superior being began masterfully combining DNA of various living and non-living beings that may include the Virgin Mary, Peacocks and Sea Coral to create new, infant, living creatures walking the earth. This creator allowed these new creatures to grow up to experience the darks and lights of puberty including both want and bliss, along with, both the aloneness and pride of being singularly unique in the world. Just as these new creatures were gaining a foothold into the world and transitioning to knowing adults — the creator caught, gutted and turned the living flesh inside out for study and exploration. On display were the being’s inner, emotional landscapes {soulscapes} and recorded life experiences. Witnessed are the darks and lights, hopes and fears of a rich and brief, conscious earthly life. 

Skillfully, Daniel uses color, line and imagery to take you on a journey of dualities: the familiar and the aloof, the comfortable and uncomfortable, the intelligible and elusive. Your eye follows the curves and lines of the paintings, like a needle on an LP, revealing hidden information for your senses. The rhythm of complimentary and flowing colors pushes, pulls and massages you into these soulscapes so skillfully that you don’t realize you are being lured into an intimate experience until it is too late. It’s the seduction of a new lover by an experienced one. The deeply rational masked by the seemingly irrational.

Orbiting back to earth — Daniel is currently preparing for a show opening at Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh. The opening celebration is next Thursday, Feb 6th. For more information click here. To see more of his art visit his website. I’ve added Daniel to my list of artists to follow and am looking forward to watching his evolution over time.

Enjoy!

Troy