About

ART:  The Fire We All Dance Around

Dan Carey / Graphaeo Design creates lamps and decorative objects for understated yet sophisticated interiors.   Rawhide and steel, compelling primary materials, touch ancient familiarity.   Unique and original, rust prints on leather are constellations of limited edition monotypes, presented as illuminated art.

Fuse traditional functionality with creative artistic sensibility, and you can activate collective memory.  I try to evoke connections to past and future that satisfy our human urge to use objects imbued with handmade integrity and simplicity; simplicity that only looks simple.

One of a kind, rust printed leather panels generate mellow golden luminescence, calming and inviting as endlessly dancing fires in an ancient hearth.

Another method of forming leather int ovarious impressed  and rusted forms has opend the path to constructing large (and small) leather masks, incorporatiing a wide variety of materials, from wood to stainless steel, copper and glass as well as manipulated plastics and found objects, rooted in a tradition of indigenous craftsmanship.

Email for a consultation.  dan@graphaeo.com  

Daniel Carey Artist Bio

dan-pinnacle-shadow-12.12Dan Carey — Born 1950, Bangor, Maine.  I haven’t made it back yet.   Attended 14 different schools, K to High School in the US & Europe, and then 4 colleges & universities.  Always took art classes, made commercial pottery or drew, painted & photographed.  Resident of Santa Cruz, CA since 1982, week of the flood.  Timing is everything.  Small business owner for 30 years.

Some notable artistic influences:

  • 2 years of Waldorf school North Hollywood, CA, 2nd & 3rd grade
  • Frank Erickson, Painter, University of Utah Salt Lake Laboratory School, Jr high art teacher. Notable quote:  “There is no such thing as ‘black’ paint. Only Black Theory. Look in! Find color”.
  • John Laska, Painter, art teacher, Indiana State University Terra Haute.  Notable quote: “Of course!  You can use the pottery studio as much as you want”.
  • Minna Citron, Printer, Painter & much more, visiting scholar at Colorado Rocky Mountain School, Carbondale, CO. Notable quote: “Let your work communicate!  Artistry is in how you go about showing what you have to say”.
  • Dr. Keith Justice, Director, Colorado Rocky Mountain Biological Station, Gothic, CO.  Notable quote: “Back in the old days, a man ground his own pigments.  There was none of this lazy man ready made stuff”.
  • Andy Lenz, Artist and art store owner.  Notable quote, while looking at one of my paintings: “You know you are wasting your time”. Yeah, I know, Andy.  Everybody’s a painter. Most people still own every painting they ever made….. “No.  I mean running this business.  You just need to paint a few of those every year”. So this is all his fault!

I have an incurable habit of messing around with stuff, juxtaposing materials and processes, looking for results reflecting a direct timeless aesthetic.  There are no boxes; only a continuum.  The leather project started in 2006 with one square foot of rawhide and a random idea.  This current series of lamps is a sample of results so far and a hint of outrageous things to come.

During my extended and everlasting childhood, luck and desire exposed me to many types of art and media, as well as creatively influential people; sciences from anthropology to zoology; trades and everyday practical experiences. Jack of all trades and master of a couple!

So I stay curious.  As the leather monotype printing project evolves, motifs of historic indigenous art, scientific apparatus and industrial processes flow together with mechanics needed to print in a new, unique way.

I make engaging functional objects in an open-ended series I call Graphaeo Design. My handmade lamps show off the prints so as to integrate them into everyday life:  practical fine art objects as living sculpture. 
The masks resonate with a life of their own, emmisaries from a world we barely know.

I sincerely hope you enjoy them! They are unique in the world. I love to make them so I can live with this effusive golden light in my home.

Contact me so you can have one, too.
dan@graphaeo.com