Today we’d like to introduce you to Danie Cansino .
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I was born in Los Angeles, and have lived here my whole life. I come from a Yaqui Native and Chicano background, both my parents were from large blended families. As a young child, I was always interested in the arts. I have been drawing and creating since I can remember, and began teaching myself to play instruments at age 7. I used the arts as ways to express myself and cope with an unstable home life. It became very clear, and I became very vocal, about growing up to become an artist. As I got older, I became involved in other arts like writing, as well as joining sports, and became somewhat of a jack of all trades. Art was always heavily discouraged in the low-income community around me. I was taught to make money, support myself— survival overall. Out of fear of being a “starving artist,” I attended Cal State Long Beach for English, creative writing instead of visual art.
I began working part-time as a makeup artist at MAC cosmetics, which allowed me to support myself, in addition to giving me a creative outlet I eventually left CSULB to work more, because I wasn’t passionate about my major. I was doing well and had great experiences in my time working as a makeup artist. In my time as a film/music industry artist, I had the privilege to work on a music video for Janet Jackson, a Grammy performance for Kendrick Lamar, and experience international travel. Though I was grateful for my opportunities, I still craved the challenges of creating visual art. After working in retail makeup and as an industry artist for years, I realized that the makeup business was not what I intended to pursue, but more so fell into. I started I had to backtrack to why I had started working in cosmetics, and it was about color composition, design, and the human figure. I realized that I had let nearly a decade go by, and I was only holding myself back from doing what I truly loved. Against my own fears, and the doubt of others, I decided to go back to school for Fine Art.
As a result, I attended Rio Hondo College in 2012, focusing on the Visual Arts program. In my time there, I was invited to exhibit in the American Museum of Ceramic Art, and the Rio Hondo Gallery. I also began teaching Art for an LAUSD after-school program, where I led drawing, painting, photography, and sculpting lessons for 6th-8th graders, in a low-income area of Los Angeles.
In 2017, I graduated from Laguna College of Art and Design, where I earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting, with an Emphasis in Sculpture. I am currently working as a freelance artist, and plan to continue on with my education this fall, as an MFA candidate at the University of Southern California. Now at 32, I am also a resident artist at Mi Familia Tattoo Studio, alongside many talented artists, and owned by Big Ceeze of Ink Master. I’ve been tattooing here for almost a year, and specialize in color and black and grey realism.
Please tell us about your art.
My work pertains to the issues of underrepresented cultures. My paintings are intended to break the normal standards of traditional painting, by inserting people of different ethnic heritages into the subjects which are usually predominantly White.
I want to show the feeling I have of injustices, but also want to exhibit that all are just in search of happiness in life. It gave me the idea to create my own interpretation of these words, especially in the context of my own upbringing and surroundings.
Working with traditional oil painting materials in my undergraduate studies made me explore other surfaces that would directly emphasize the topic of Latino culture and a blue-collar upbringing. I first used Mexican textiles, specifically serapes which are handmade Mexican blankets, to replace canvas. I painted in a way that the textile would peak through around the painting, and could be transparently seen around the work. Given the serape’s utilitarian purpose of warmth and shelter, I used it to create a sense of nostalgia for those of us who recognize them and to reference hard labor. I also used finished wood surfaces, in the same style of transparency as the serape paintings. The use of raw material gives a feel of craftsmanship and hints at the natural wood used in Latino furniture, as remembered in my childhood. The roughness of that textiles forced me to work in a looser, quick-looking fashion, where with these wooden panels I could paint every detail.
The narratives painted on these new surfaces were inspired by the Mexican game, Loteria. The game is very popular in Latino culture and is very close to bingo— with images instead of letters. These images I chose to paint reflect a modern idea of the original card, and its use in contemporary context.
Once I decided to work on two different surfaces, I thought that I could go even further and incorporate ceramics into the body of work. I wanted to do this because ceramics are a big part of Latino culture, always in a utilitarian purpose, and I intended on finding ways to use these mediums in a nonfunctional expressive work of art. In addition, earthenware clay bodies are used by Latino people, and I decided to use the same clay, underglazes and firing techniques as used in their traditional practices. I have also created various types of ceramic pieces over the years and decided to work with three forms of ceramics: tile work, mosaics, bas relief sculpture. I chose, however, to create these new ceramic works in the same dimensions as my paintings, and on the same wooden “card,” as to keep my work cohesive.
In my latest work, I have taken the tattooed fruit and placed it back into supermarkets, to record reactions and attitudes about the practice from strangers shopping for fruit. The outer rind of the fruit can be tattooed and will not penetrate into the pulp. This is also metaphoric of people who have tattoos, having nothing to do with who they are in terms of character. I hope to continue the exploration of this medium and its use in public practice and to further blur the lines between fine art and tattooing.
Choosing a creative or artistic path comes with many financial challenges. Any advice for those struggling to focus on their artwork due to financial concerns?
When life gets hard, hustle harder! You can fail in any career path you choose; you may as well seek out something you love and worth the fight.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I’m a resident Artist at Mi Familia Tattoo Studio in Anaheim, where you can come in to see some artwork, make an appointment to get a tattoo, or just say hi! We are next door to Disneyland, easy to find. My work can also be seen on my Instagram, handle @Daniecansino. All my work is for sale unless mentioned otherwise, and I am open to commissions, public projects, and exhibitions!
Contact Info:
- Email: daniecansino@gmail.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/daniecansino
- Twitter: Twitter.com/daniellecansino
Image Credit:
Photos by James Alvarez, and Carol Coverubias.
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