I am Danita

A dreamer, a maker and an artist.

Art is the most important thing in my life. To me, art is my gateway to let the fantasy world that lives in my head pour out into reality.

My world is a place where everything is beautiful, where you can sail the ocean on a paper boat and soar the sky propelled by the wings of a paper bird.

It's a place where I am safe from a world that sometimes I do not understand, where everyone is friendly and where a pure heart is appreciated and nurtured.

My Work

Everything I create is inspired by my personal experiences and memories. My emotions and moods will always shape what I paint.

The female figure is the main component of my work, you will always find a girl on my paintings. Sometimes they sport animal characteristics like ears, they are neither anthropomorphic animals nor girls in costumes, but something else entirely. It's hard to describe them, but they are just what they are.

There always seems to be a story within the paintings, they are moments frozen in time and the viewer is left wondering what brought them to this event, and what will happen after this frozen moment is over.

Surreal imageries surround my work, I get the inspiration from my dreams and daydreaming sessions, where everything is possible if I can imagine it.

My Process

It's actually very simple... I have no idea how I do it.

Let me explain it to you. Many artists have an organized process, where they can recall their inspiration and skill at will and start painting. I just can't do that.

My inspiration comes and goes in waves, and I never know what or when it will hit me next.

I will be sitting quietly and home one day and then I will start feeling an energy building up within my soul, like the ocean retreats before a tsunami is about to strike.

That's when I know I must prepare. I start filling page after page after page on sketchbooks, gather my art tools and paints like a chipmunk preparing for winter.

And then, one day, the wave crashes. I fall into a creative frenzy, making artwork after artwork non stop.

I don't eat, sleep or do anything besides creation for days at a time. There is this incredible force that takes over me and compels me to create and let the floodgates of my world open to flood our world with the inhabitants of mine.

Unicorns, mermaids, woodland creatures and many other things come into life in those sessions where everything that matters is to create.

And then after many days and nights, it's over. Just like Forrest Gump one day stopped running, I stop too.

The waters of creation recede and on the shores of my table, the results of the storm remain while I fall into a deep slumber, exhausted and dreaming of beautiful things that will come to life on the next wave.

Frida

Frida has a very strong prescence on my work, her strong spirit and will are an inspiration to and she will find herself in my world from time to time.

Rather than re-interpreting her paintings and style, I invite Frida to my world, where you will find her posing for me to capture her on my own style.

I use bright colors and complex patterns on her dresses, she always wore colorful clothes and I always put flowers in her hair.

The fire in her soul is always in her eyes, I always paint her with a very strong look and soulful eyes, letting her spirit permeate the portraits I make of her.

Watercolor

Watercolour is a medium that has always mesmerized me, I love to watch the paint flow on the wet paper, and how the colors have a life of their own.

I love letting the paint dictate what it wants to do, I feel like the vessel for the paint to do it's bidding and I only suggests the pigments what to do.

By doing that, my watercolor paintings have a free flowing quality, they are more relaxed and free than my mixed media work where I am in control of what happens there.

I find using watercolor a magical experience, and every time I feel I need inspiration or the need to play with my materials, I take them out.

Even laying down lines and color blotches on the paper makes me happy, and that always get me back to creating.

Art dolls

Since I was a little child I loved dolls. Playing and dressing them with my own outfits kept me busy for hours at a time.

Now that I am a grownup I keep on playing with dolls, creating them with my own hands and dressing them with my own outfits.

I like to sculpt their faces with my own hands, using paper clay and other media to make the beautiful eyes and faces of my paintings become touchable objects.

Sensory experience is very important to me, and that is one of the reasons I love creating dolls. Touching and feeling my artwork gives my creations a new dimension, literally!

I get the chance to work with the girl's eyes and expressions in a way that's impossible with only paint, and I get a thrill to see them come to life.

Experimenting with different materials for their outfit gives them a very unique personality, and each one of them is a very unique art work.

And of course, Frida finds her way to my dolls too. Working with her is an amazing opportunity to create colorful and complex projects that channel her strong spirit.

Miniatures

Tiny little things always get my attention, I collect tiny things I find when I am looking for new materials to use on my art.

And of course, my love for Tiny things draws me to create tiny things. My favorite miniature dolls to make are the Kokeshi style dolls, made with a wooden peg and decorated by hand.

Whenever I work with my Kokeshi dolls I pick a theme and build a collection, I love how they look together when they are finished.

But even if they are tiny, it does not mean they are less detailed than my larger works, I give them the same expressive eyes and cute outfits.

They are just a tiny version of my paintings, and that brings me to my childhood where I created entire fantasy worlds as I played with the miniature dolls and tea sets my mom got me from the market.

Alice in wonderland

My work is influenced by surrealism and fantasy, and there's nothing like the world of Alice in Wonderland to represent those two currents.

I give that nonsensical world my own interpretation, taking elements of the world of Alice and incorporate them into my creations.

I really enjoy working on that world, it's a rich universe full of unusual ideas and a place where anything can happen, and that's where I can let my imagination run wild.

I keep many different editions of the book, since it's one of my most favorite stories to read and tell trough my art.

Darknita

My work is bright and colorful, but there cannot be light without darkness.

I have suffered from depression for a long time, and my anxieties and fears have a way to creep into my world and manage to cast a cloud of darkness over me.

It's like a dementor loomed over me and everything I do, all the happiness and cheer are sucked out of me and nothing, not even medication can get me out of my darkness.

Nothing, except art.

That's how Darknita was born. An outlet for my fears and anxieties. When I create my dark pieces, I have absolute control on what they do, what they look like and how they act.

It's the best therapy in the world, I get all the darkness out and my emotions clear out when I given them a physical shape.

They are into the world, and out my soul. They cannot harm me any more and I realize that they were not as bad as they seemed in my head.

They are harmless now. I can let them roam free. Someone will pick them up, give them a new meaning and nurture them back into a beautiful work of art.

Classes

Recently I discovered the joy of sharing what I've learned wile making art with the world. I started teaching small classes at my friend's studios to people interested in my work.

Soon the interest grew, but since I cannot travel too much for now, I created online classes where I teach you about painting, doll making and creativity.

Together, we go over the basics and end up making beautiful creations with your own personal touch and likeness.

Rather than just teaching you how to do it, I like to guide you through your personal artistic journey to unleash your creativity and letting your art speak for yourself.

If you are looking for a creative outlet and you don't know where to begin, join me! Together we'll let the artist in you out for a walk.

Art journals

I am a firm believer that being surrounded with beautiful things will inspire you to create beautifully things.

And that's the reason why I create my own artistic journals to keep sketches, paintings and writings.

I make them with covers of antique books I find discarded in libraries and thrifty shops, altered and covered in beeswax to give them a new lease on life.

Inside them, pages of hand cut watercolor paper will give your creative self plenty of space to express, sketch and create beautiful things.

Each one an original artwork in itself, they will keep your creations surrounded in beauty.

Holding them in you hands is a feast for your senses. The scent of the beeswax, the smoothness of the surface and the contrast with the rough paper and the beautiful illustrations inside and outside will keep you soul happy.

This is me

This is me, Danita. A dreamer, a maker and an artist. And this is my story.

I hope that you join me on my artistic adventure, there is so much I want to share that I want to live a hundred lives to be able to explore everything there is to see and create.

Learn more about me by visiting me on my blog and online gallery