Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident 2019
Danielle Wood is an artist who uses ceramics to create installations and sculptures that abstract forms found in nature. She views the ocean as a metaphor for the subconscious and explores the dynamics of social relationships through her artwork. Her artwork is always made in relation to itself, and there are always multiples interacting with each other. In her installations, she is interested in creating spaces that surround the viewer and make them a participant in the surroundings by removing the artwork from the still pedestal and placing it in the viewers environment. Surrealism and creating a suspended liminal space much like the ocean is an inspiration for her.
Wood received her Masters of Fine Arts from New Mexico State University in 2012 and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Arizona State University in 2006. She completed a residency in ceramics at Anderson Ranch Art Center in 2014. Her work has been on display at the ASU Ceramic Studio Tour 2015-2018, Spark! Mesa’s Festival of Creativity, 37th Annual Contemporary Crafts Exhibition at the Mesa Art Center, INFLUX Cycle 6, and Artlink’s 18th Annual Juried Exhibition at the Heard Museum. She was also the recipient of the Baron Purchase award and has a permanent installation on display at Illuminate Apartments in downtown Phoenix. She is a member and co-president of Eye Lounge Gallery and has been nominated for Governor’s/Mayor’s Art Awards in Phoenix in 2017-2018. Danielle exhibits locally, regionally, nationally and currently has work in the permanent collection at New Mexico State University Art Museum.
I conceptualize the ocean as a surreal metaphor for the subconscious. I view the ocean as a flat blue surface from above, but know that below the surface there exists beauty, mystery, fear, intricate social relationships, and potential danger. The ocean is much more complicated below the surface than what it appears from above, much like the human psyche.
Semiotics and how nature can be a symbolic visual language to describe the human experience and emotive inner world intrigues me. The abstractions of nature— its forms and shapes— describe emotional states and create a dialogue between the artwork and the viewer. My work intertwines fact and fiction. The shapes and forms originate from my knowledge of biology, but I do not pursue to render specific species. Through my work I invite the viewer to escape into another reality, to experience another realm of imagination and possibility.