About – Dana Wilcher Art

Early childhood years..

When I was old enough to hold a pen I did something that my grandmother found very intriguing; I got small square sheets of paper, lots of different color markers, and I drew what looked like square energy portals receding in size until they disappeared into the center- that is when my grandmother knew I was an artist. “You had such an eye for color and composition,” she said, “I knew it was a gift.” Being an artist herself, she took it upon herself to begin training me.

Countless hours were spent learning to draw the human body proportionately and working with a myriad of different mediums. By the age of 10 I had gathered the tools to work with oil and chalk pastel, charcoal, pencil, watercolor, and pen. By the age of 12 I received my first professional commission and began exploring oil painting.

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My mother was an artist as well, and all free time I had was spent in a corner of her art shop creating emotional and moving works of art. Every day after school I would retreat to the art shop and pour my soul out onto the canvas. I see this time of my life as my training phase- I was teaching myself the triumphs and frustrations of being an artist.

We lived in a log cabin in the heart of the Eastern Sierras which my Grandfather built In the 50’s, and it was an incredibly wild upbringing. The cabin was planted on the side of a mountain with no neighbors in sight. We didn’t have electricity until after my father passed away when I was 10, which fostered an incredibly profound connection to the land, my ancestors and guides, and the dimensions of reality that are so naturally accessible to children. I filled pages with angels and fairies and slipped into the woods to be alone with what I felt. I carried a sensitivity that often overwhelmed me, yet it quietly shaped the way I saw the world. Over the years that same sensitivity became the compass of my healing, teaching me how to listen, soften, dive deep, and create.

The Awakening

My life changed completely in 2015. I was midway through my first year of college at Sonoma State University when I received news that my childhood home had burned down in a massive wildfire, claiming the lives of our two beloved cats and all of our possessions. The release of energy that the fire unleashed awakened the deepest parts of my soul in what I now see was a jarring shake to awaken and embrace the reality of my existence on this earth as a spiritual being, as well as a survivor of childhood sexual, emotional, and physical abuse. I left school and focused the entirety of my energy upon healing work.

My artwork began to mirror my healing journey. As I was processing the unexplainable emotions of healing from PTSD, I experimented with abstract splashes of color thrown loosely and passionately onto the canvas, my love of realism temporarily washed away by the need for unconventional and immediately impactful expression. As I became present in my life and started to return from the dark abyss of uncovering trauma, my art began to take form once again in the faces and figures of women. I began to hybridize my style to explore ways to mesh the tangible with the intangible- realistic depictions of the human form with spiritually inclined subject matter.

Where I Am Now

Through my healing work and this initiatory path, I’ve come to understand painting as a shamanic practice. A way of walking into the dark, gathering what is hidden, and bringing back something whole. My current body of work, Sacred Initiations, is a living record of that process. It will unfold over a total of 5+ years as a series of twelve large-scale paintings, each one carrying the medicine of a threshold I’ve crossed in my own healing.

This work is not about chasing light or transcendence, but about sitting with what is raw and difficult, honoring the depths, and witnessing transformation. Through these paintings I hope to share not just my own journey, but a mirror for the collective passages we all move through on the path of becoming.

I live in Austin TX, and when I am not in the studio I can be found seeking out new and enriching experiences across the globe learning about plant medicine, spirituality, holistic healing, and deepening my own connection to God, my path, and the Earth.

Education and Artistic Influences

I have always been incredibly inspired by the deeply spiritual and technically masterful nature of Renaissance Art. Many of my studies in art school focused around learning the techniques of artists such as William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Artemisia Gentileschi, Michaelangelo, and Raffaello Sanzio. Below are two Master Study Replications I recreated in an effort to learn from their masterpieces, one is a grisaille study of Bougereau’s Seated Nude, the other is La Donna Velata by Raffaelo.

In addition to my interest in the Renaissance era, the psychological and culturally innovative movements of Surrealism and Expressionism inspired many of my earlier works. One of my greatest influences and teachers is Alex Grey – whom I had the pleasure of studying with in New York. Visit the “Past Works” gallery to view some of my earlier explorations.

Education

Sonoma State University, Psychology Major, 2014 – 2015
Oregon College of Art and Craft, BFA Major, 2017 – 2019
Laguna College of Art and Design, two month intensive, 2019