Art & Lies: Danielle Durchslag

Yesterday, apart from helping install R. Justin Stewart's sculpture 2 am to 2 pm (2008), I also spent some time with Danielle Durchslag, who had some paper collages to mount and hang.

Danielle next to Adolescent, 2010. Paper, tape, glub. 45 x 66 in.

Danielle never studied art formally, but she's working on her MA in Art Education, and works as a student teacher in the Lower East Side. From her general demeanor (she emanates a level of cheerful humor and positivity that makes Spongebob Squarepants resemble Leonard Cohen), I guessed that Danielle was a kindergarden teacher within ten minutes of first meeting her. She works with children, her collages are of children, and her whole approach to art is in fact driven by a childlike trust in her intuition and playful trial and error.


My original plans were to interview Danielle alone after we finished installing. Instead, I ended up going to dinner with her and Justin. 

The conversation that resulted (it turns out the two artists have known each other for quite a while and had some mighty interesting things to say about each other's work) is something to which I think I can only really do justice with a separate entry.