Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Duer.
Danielle Duer is a visual artist focused on creating narrative pieces of art meant to celebrate love and empower and encourage women through her fierce yet feminine style. Her work as an artist began as a child. Her grandmother worked in a marker factory and gave her all the rejects the factory could not sell. Danielle started to use the markers to create safe, imaginary worlds to escape when real life felt too scary. She filled canvases with colorful, bold patterns to symbolize strength and layered the large shapes with white, dainty details to symbolize compassion. Throughout a tough childhood, her art became her way to control life, have a voice, and share herself safely. As she got older, she wrongly believed she would never be taken seriously as a real artist using only markers, so she taught herself to paint. The powerful images inspired her in fashion magazines – the ones with the soldier-like women facing forward with expressionless faces and giant red lips. As she began to portray her version of strong women on canvas, she didn’t see herself in this new style until she added her familiar layers of inks, patterns, and details. Over the following two decades, the artist found that her work resonated with others. Women were especially buying her art as a symbol of courage and commissioning her to tell their stories. She was determined that she could make a living as a full-time artist. She received her degree in Commercial Art, padding her fine art career with design and marketing skills. She opened her Studio Gallery to the public and gained a small but mighty group of supporters that encouraged her even until now. She later received an award from the mayor for contributing to her native Nashville’s Arts and Culture. Today, Danielle’s work can be found on home furnishings, commercial and residential interior design projects, textiles, products, and homes of special patrons and clients worldwide. Her message of strength and love is evident in every project.
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
There are three main challenges for me:
- There is only me to do all of the things. From the planning, marketing, shipping, buying, photographing the products, website design, money management, advertising, social media content, graphic design, and making the actual art from beginning to end, it’s all just me. Switching back and forth from hustle mode to slow creation mode is incredibly difficult.
- It’s lonely, and I am often in my head. Being an artist is so hard because it’s emotional and lonely. I have to get out into the world and visit with people every day or get too caught up in my thoughts and feelings. I need a reset every few hours. If I don’t, my work suffers.
- I make sure people see my work regularly.
For the past few years, Social Media has been a great place to connect with people daily, and now, as the algorithm changes, it gets harder and harder to stay connected. I am always trying to discover new ways to share what I am doing, being careful that those ways do not take energy away from my actual work.
I appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I began making art as a child. I went through a great deal of trauma that seemed to cause all kinds of difficult emotions that felt tangled in my head. I spent hours on the floor with my grandmother’s markers, drawing intricate little patterns. In retrospect, I was attempting to sort through the chaos, organize my thoughts, and process those feelings. Making art helped me see how I was feeling and gave me a way to control my narrative. I realized through making art, I could change the way I was feeling and empower myself. As I got older, I began depicting women and femininity as strong, colorful, and powerful. I gave them serious expressions and often a heavy emphasis on their heads to represent the strength in their minds. I call them Gentle Warriors.
I often write poetry to go with these pieces, words of hope and encouragement to keep going. As I shared these symbolic portraits, I realized how many women resonated with them and wanted to see themselves this way. I began painting commissions of these women for patrons all over the world. I created a simple and easy process to discover the story that they wanted to convey. We decided on symbols I would hide in the piece to represent their message. I aim to create a meaningful experience and an incredible representation of what they find most meaningful in their lives. These stories and this work are all so important to me. Every time I do this, I can’t help but think this is what I was made to do. It feels like the opportunity to hear someone’s feelings and make something they can see, as I did for myself as a child. This is a gift for me as well as for them.
I also paint flowers. Because they are associated with femininity, I also like them to look powerful, with lots of color and a veil of (gentle) white detail. And most always, I will include intricate patterns in my paintings, the kind I have made since childhood. After I finish a painting, I scan my work, digitally extract the patterns from the piece, and license it to companies in commercial ways like apparel or gift design. I am currently working on a fabric collection with Benartex. I also use my patterns to design custom wallpapers and textiles. Collaborations include Anthropologie, Paper Products Design, Bergdorf Goodman, Elle Magazine, and Home Goods. I share messages of love, moving forward, strength, and renewal in all my work, even commercial collaborations.
Let’s end by discussing what matters most to you and why.
I want to create art that means something. I want to convey a message of hope and power, power in the way to inspire others that they can do the hard, often uncomfortable work it takes to keep going. To live more intentionally, find beauty and meaning in their lives, and celebrate that every day. I want to encourage ( to give courage ) to others. If we are being honest, so many of us are hurting and even suffering. I want to be real about that, to offer hope in those dark places and be a source of motivation. This is my work and what I want to use my voice for in this life. I know how to do that best through my art and writing.
May you be complete.
May the food you seek fulfill you.
May this sustenance make your guts twinkle.
May it satisfy your perpetual thirst.
May you last forever.
Pricing:
- My commission paintings are $350 per square foot with a $1000 minimum and can be divided into 2 or three payments.
- My work is also available through the Chauvet Arts Gallery in Nashville.
- I have a variety of small gifts available on my website, www.danielleduer.com
- Murals start at $40 a square foot.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.loveloveillustrated.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielleduerart
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danielleduerart
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-duer/
- Other: https://chauvetarts.com/artist/danielle-duer
Image Credits
The first image ( the black and white photo of me painting ) is a photograph by Beth Rose Goin and I have her permission to use.
