I first met New York-based when she was about 11 years old, and I accompanied my dad on one of his semi-regular trips to Salt Spring Island. The daughter of a friend of a friend, Danica was bright-eyed, competitive, feisty and a driven soccer player always sporting a bruised knee or two. But her creative talents shone through like a beacon even then.

Fast forward 15 years, and the 26-year-old artist has a Master of Fine Arts from the and is a 2017/18 Chubb Fellow 91裸聊视频� the highest honour the school can bestow upon its graduates 91裸聊视频� and she is selling art and making a living as an artist in one of the world91裸聊视频檚 major arts centres. In February, she had a solo show of her ballpoint pen drawings in New York, while a month-long solo show of her paintings opened March 1 in Milan, Italy. In August, she91裸聊视频檒l be exhibiting back home on Salt Spring at Steffich Fine Art.

These accomplishments are not surprising to anyone who91裸聊视频檚 ever been introduced to the artist. But as we sit and chat now, she says it all still seems a little surreal to her.

91裸聊视频淕etting into the school was a huge accomplishment,91裸聊视频� she says, shaking her head. 91裸聊视频淚 couldn91裸聊视频檛 even dream of it for a while. It felt closer to Hollywood, just a fantasy 91裸聊视频� That place is full of people I admire.91裸聊视频�

The April before her program started, Danica, along with a few other students, was invited to the school91裸聊视频檚 prestigious Tribeca Ball, where she spent the evening surrounded by the glitz of celebrity and fashion and art. In New York for several days, she remembers finding herself in a tiny alley, watching a handful of leaves caught in the chaos of a ceaseless whirlwind.

91裸聊视频淭here was this parallel feeling inside.91裸聊视频�

Once the masters program began, however, she was grounded, fast and hard.

91裸聊视频淵our first year is boot camp,91裸聊视频� she says. 91裸聊视频淵ou91裸聊视频檙e in classes from nine to six, work until midnight, then you go home and work some more.91裸聊视频� She smiles and a shrugs. 91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 stressful.91裸聊视频�

The summer between first and second years, she was chosen for a residency at the Leipzig International Art Programme, where she spent two months living and working on art in an old, repurposed cotton mill, before returning to school with a new sense of urgency.

91裸聊视频淏eing in New York, it91裸聊视频檚 such an invigorating, visceral place. You can91裸聊视频檛 not be propelled by that.91裸聊视频�

Work on her thesis continued in earnest, as Danica laboured on painting after painting, as well as an eight-foot-wide ballpoint pen drawing.

Danica91裸聊视频檚 hands fly in front of her as she tries to explain why she loves what she does, what she sees, how her work changed while in New York. She stopped painting from life and photographs, turning instead to the depths of her imagination, learned how to focus and 91裸聊视频渉ow to squish the spectrum of light into the spectrum of paint.91裸聊视频�

Her pieces explore the complexities of adolescence, of connection, of that feeling of being an outsider, those 91裸聊视频減ainful, awkward moments that we all pivot off of.91裸聊视频�

91裸聊视频淚 love how in painting something can be two things at once,91裸聊视频� she says. 91裸聊视频淚t can fill you up. It can empty you. I don91裸聊视频檛 necessarily paint things I like.91裸聊视频�

Rather, she91裸聊视频檚 pulled to give a voice to things that hurt, or are jarring.

Magnificent in their complexity, her canvases hold no playful poppies or soothing seashores to be displayed in a hotel lobby. Her work is visceral, complicated, physical, uncomfortable. She walks a line of contradictions with every stroke of colour: the sublime and the grotesque; intimacy pressed against voyeurism.

91裸聊视频淭hat dichotomy between repulsion and attraction is so important to me,91裸聊视频� she says. 91裸聊视频淚 walk that line constantly. I want the viewer to feel uncomfortable, to wonder if maybe she shouldn91裸聊视频檛 be looking.91裸聊视频�

Now as a Chubb Fellow at the school, Danica has the time and studio space to further explore those relationships and continue unearthing her own voice while mentoring incoming students.

The latest development in Danica91裸聊视频檚 artistic evolution was her Italian debut at the in Milan, Italy, which ran until April 6. The solo show, 91裸聊视频淭he Ghost I Made You Be,91裸聊视频� includes a significant number of her most recent works, the majority of which were created specifically for the exhibit.

91裸聊视频淭he title91裸聊视频�comes from a Leonard Cohen lyric from a song called 91裸聊视频楾reaty91裸聊视频� off his final album before he died last year,91裸聊视频� she says. 91裸聊视频淭he full line is 91裸聊视频業91裸聊视频檓 sorry for the ghost I made you be/only one of us was real and that was me.91裸聊视频� Leonard, a fellow Canadian, has occupied a spot close to my heart for a long time. I think he was an exceptional poet who spent his whole life clawing at what it means to be human.91裸聊视频�

91裸聊视频淭his line struck me as incredibly poignant,91裸聊视频� she continues. 91裸聊视频淭o me, it relates to the power structures built in the space between people, and the slow unfolding of oneself into another person, and back. I think it relates to the work I91裸聊视频檓 doing right now.91裸聊视频�

The gallery 91裸聊视频� which has purchased two of Danica91裸聊视频檚 pieces already 91裸聊视频� describes the work succinctly, as representing all of us: 91裸聊视频渦ncertain and fluctuating identities suspended between amusement and latent violence, pleasure and abuses, freedom and surveillance, frustration and unexpected poetical impulses, individualism and communion.91裸聊视频�

91裸聊视频淚 am grateful for their confidence in my work, and very much looking forward to this show,91裸聊视频� adds Danica.

Though still at the beginning of what is surely meant to become a significant and impactful artistic career, Danica has already honed in on a delicate balance of contradictions in her work, and she91裸聊视频檚 done it through endless hours of practice.

91裸聊视频淢y process is probably brutal. I91裸聊视频檓 scrappy, like I am in sports,91裸聊视频� she laughs, and I91裸聊视频檓 reminded of her 91裸聊视频淏ruise Bank,91裸聊视频� a photographic collection of her battered body post-soccer games, which she ended up felting into 91裸聊视频渇uzzy badges.91裸聊视频�

Possessed of an incredible talent, kind-hearted, gorgeous, Danica has an otherworldly quality that shines through until it seems as though sparks should fly from her fingers as she talks about her passions. But there91裸聊视频檚 no mistaking, this woman has a core of iron.

91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 a bit of a battlefield,91裸聊视频� she says of the art world, with an offhand smile. 91裸聊视频淏ut I91裸聊视频檝e always been able to make it with drive and determination and work ethic.91裸聊视频�

- Story by Angela Cowan Photography by Lia Crowe

Story courtesy of , a Black Press Media publication
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