Inspiration & Tastemakers
Artist Q&A: Danielle Cross
Name:
Danielle Cross
Location:
Sydney, Australia
Medium:
Photography
Artist Q&A
My Art career path started about 10 years ago. My background was Interior Design, having studied at Enmore Design Centre in Sydney. I have always used my painting process as my creative outlet. After living overseas and interstate, an unexpected art exhibition in Sydney, lead me to where I am today. The Ultimate Sliding doors moment. Photography was a personal outlet during a difficult time losing one of my best friends. In the grips of grief, I lost the passion to paint. Painting felt so raw and exposed at a time when I was fighting just that.
Photography has a lightness to it that made me comfortable in the uncomfortable moments. The fluid nature of being able to digitally edit gave me the freedom to escape. The way the camera captures light and shadows, much like the human element in it. The camera became the paintbrush.
Day to Day in the life of an artist is ever changing. Everyday is different but it always starts with my favorite coffee watching the sunrise.
This sets my intentions and helps ground the creative ideas that arise in my head at 2am. Days consist of client meetings, signings and artwork deliveries and then there are days which are solely locked down for creative concepts and creating. These days I value the most where you get lost and there is no concept of time.
I find importance in my art through the connection with the viewer. Something I achieve by evoking an emotion and feeling through color, shape, form, subject matter and strength of the storyline that I'm entrenched in at the time I create.
Your tools and medium?
The Camera Lens is the blank canvas.
I use Canon EOS M5, Fujifilm instax polaroid and Ricoh 800MZ 35mm film camera.
Your process?
Creativity concepts thought provoking moments, distant places and everything in between. I shoot the art with a concept in mind but truthfully, the art takes on a different dimension when in the moment with the camera in my hand. The edited photography merges imagery into abstract forms- where waves and landscapes look like they were created using a brushstroke rather than through a camera lens
Where do you find your inspiration?
Experiences are my greatest influence. What I feel, think, see, do are the elements that are the starting points for my art and art photography. Travel shapes you; relationships challenge you, sliding doors moments create you. Influence is a dance between your dark and light sides. It is a matter of embracing as opposed to resisting.
Travel is the perfect antidote for our realities. Travel creates storylines. Travel takes us to foreign places and foreign mindsets. This is when the senses take over and the real magic happens. These experiences are felt and transported back into the studio and into my art concepts. Through visually seeing new perspectives in the places you visit; new emotions are formed and that is what comes back to the studio with me. How you feel when experiencing those places is where all good concepts are formed.
Inspiration comes from an emotive place. These feelings have shape, color, and composition. It is an intangible language that transports to the canvas or camera.
Best part of the job?
It is a true honor to see my artworks at home in my client’s personal spaces. My artist experience that is felt when creating the artworks, to then have that connect with the client, is what makes my job so truly worthwhile. To see the artworks, connect with people all around the world is not only rewarding but so important in the current state of play world. Covid has seen us as humans, seek the most basic of human connection and if my artwork can transport and connect us all, then I am achieving the best part of the job.
It is challenging working on new concepts and connections, because of the depths in myself that I experience for the art to be what it needs to be. The artist in me is not a 9-5 job and creativity can strike at the most unexpected of times. When this happens, I stop and capture, paint or write.
I have an incredibly supportive family, my husband Ryan and daughters Marley and Evy Jude. An artist career can be unpredictable, intoxicating and challenging all at the same time. Through my passion and art, we can really push life’s boundaries and teach my girls and the next generation that really anything is possible.
WHAT WE SEA
BRAVE NEW WORLD
To live in the world during a pandemic was a time that I saw the best and worst in humanity. The world froze in time and in fear. Living my life as an artist you are always faced with fear and its surrounding emotions. Fear of failure, Fear of success. It’s the creative paradox.
Being familiar with the fear but having no control was extremely difficult. During that time I turned inwards and connected with my existing art clients. It was a time that I felt the art helped them through the tough few years as the art allowed an escape whenever they looked into the depths of my pieces. That shift has been still felt on the other side of the last couple of years, I find love and satisfaction in talking, connecting and visiting my clients one on one.
About to shoot a new water photography collection in a zebra patterned pool. Been a long while in the making so excited to see what we create.
Travel is back, so a few interstate trip in Australia and a Bali trip to end the year off, also working in on a US art exhibition! Stay Tuned!