Conversations with Daniel Kanow

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Kanow.

Hi Daniel, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
First of all, thank you for allowing me to speak with you. Creating art has been a big part of my life, it is the throughline that brings light and creativity to my history and future. Before moving to Telluride, Colorado, where I have been for the last 25 years with my wife, Joanna, and two daughters, Shai Ann and Ayla, I received my Bachelor in Fine Arts from UC Santa Cruz.

I spent extensive time going deep into my art through a deep dive into the process while spending as much time outside in nature in the Redwoods and the Sierra Nevada. This created a very fluid integration of natural spaces and quiet spaces within my art-making process. I have continued to find nature and adventure to be integral to my perspective as an artist.

In the mid-1990s I started an apprenticeship with Ted Egri, a renowned sculptor from Taos, New Mexico, and worked with him in a beautiful mentorship and friendship for 15 years. He, like Robert Weatherford, here in Telluride, Colorado, greatly influenced my perspective of why and how I make art and how I can tap into that passion through culture, nature, color, gesture, etc. For me, art is about creating work that represents your true self. I have been teaching art for about 30 years, and now I teach Expressive Painting at the Ah Haa School.

I also am an online art coach and art mentor through my art coaching business called Break Through Your Art, where I work with high-level professionals who want to take their art to the next level and align their identity with their artistic capacity. My family, my students, and my love for travel and adventure allow me to see and experience art as both an anchor and catalyst for design, architecture, and communication worldwide.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I like to say that making art is like living life. Everything we do creates another layer, another narrative of our visual history. We all go through triumph and tragedy, and there are times when it’s all up, or it’s all down. With my art, failure and risk are equally as critical as the joy and the love. It’s a mission for me that the art I make, and the coaching I do are all for the art to be expressive and emotive.

Therefore, there is so much that can come from a good story or a plan that went south, as well as the victory of standing on top of the mountain. Whether my work is objective or non-objective doesn’t really matter. Every piece of work is like a self-portrait. It shows our growth and changes as we live this life, which raises the question of a finished work. Is something ever finished? I am happy to have my work be a legacy for my children.

When life gets too smooth and comfortable, the art becomes comfortable and easy. I enjoy the winding road, the potholes, the stop signs, and the detours. This creates tension and liberation. It allows my artwork to feed off of the new and the old as I find inspiration from the day-to-day of life.

My work can be informed just as much by tragedy as by standing in front of a masterpiece at a museum. The smooth road can be the comfortable road. Sometimes when the road is too smooth the art lacks spice. I like variety. I like the challenge of climbing a mountain just as much as I love the freedom of being on the mountaintop. I like my art to reflect my lived experience, where I can be objective and accept things as they are.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My art is about expression and diving deep into the process. In whatever form I am working with, painting, drawing, or sculpture, expressing a lot of energy, movement, and emotion is essential, letting the artistic process be therapeutic and energizing. That said, my work varies between total abstraction, figurative landscapes, and mythical narratives. I greatly enjoy the mark-making and the gesture, the color, and the thick application when painting.

When drawing, I am also highly energetic and love to work with charcoal. Layering and building what I call a narrative history is of crucial importance. This is because I see a piece of art as a reflection of myself and a reflection of my journey through life. Art is a form of communication and a form of downloading an ability to take something that is bigger and put it into a visual form. In my work, I use what I call the YX factor.

This is for me to explore my Big Why through exploration and experimentation so that my work can tap into what may be extraordinary or what may be ugly. I work both in my studio and outside. My landscapes, portraits, and complete non-objective abstractions all carry similar genres, intensity, fluidity, and deep introspection.

It is only when I reach a place where the work feels calming and at peace that I can call it complete. Yet this is for me as a figure of speech. Nothing is really ever complete as life just keeps going, and the only thing we know for sure is change. Therefore, all of my work taps deeply into this process of nonattachment and letting go so that it touches the depth of my journey and gives me an opportunity to connect with others in a way that can touch something deep within them.

I create my work as a way to connect to my creative process and convey ideas and images in a way that carries an inner truth. This is why expressive painting, expressive drawing, and non-objective sculpture all allow me to go beyond myself.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
This is an interesting question, one that takes some time to ponder. Childhood had its ups and downs for me with family challenges. As I worked to change that narrative, the memories that I enjoyed were playing with friends and jumping in piles of leaves, or climbing trees and sitting and drawing sports cars or cartoon characters.

From my early childhood to my adulthood, I have always been a seeker of life, and understanding what’s outside of my box has always intrigued me. I remember my first time camping and rock climbing, and I can also remember getting into that zone as a young developing artist, being amazed at the creative output and my own capacity.

As a parent raising my daughters with my wife, I continue to do my best to engage deeply and give them as much attention and support as possible so that I can frame my own child within my ability to be my best father and my best artist, my best husband, and my best self as a kind and giving person to the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.danielkanowfineart.com and www.breakthroughyourart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielkanow.fineart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanielKanowFineArt/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@DanielKanow?si=xGSOexrgwzgt8PxR