About Danielle De Mers

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Born in Hollywood, California, Danielle De Mers grew up in Chappaqua, New York. “My earliest art memories are from California, drawing with my father on illustration board, making large gestural marks (scribbles) with a full set of Crayola crayons.”
After a childhood spent “looking over my father’s shoulder as he drew and painted his illustrations,” De Mers majored in painting and printmaking at Bennington College in Vermont. Upon graduation, she moved to Montreal where she joined L’Atelier 848, an artist-run printmaking studio. She sold her prints and paintings privately— and some smaller pieces through Eaton’s department store.
“When I first began printmaking in college, it felt like a natural extension of drawing with the added challenge of the intricacies of the craft.”
From Montreal, De Mers moved to New York City. She joined the Pratt Graphic Center, continuing her printmaking and studying under Clare Romano (etching & collograph) and David Finkbeiner (intaglio). While maintain her Manhattan studio, De Mers worked at New York University's (Tisch) School of the Arts Theater Program, becoming its Administrative Director. Also a member of the Design Department faculty, she taught beginning and advanced Figure Drawing.
“Teaching figure drawing gave me an opportunity to draw regularly although only quick poses. To have more time, I began to hire models and found working in watercolor encouraged the hand and brush to flow naturally along the edges of the gesture and through the forms.”
De Mers left academia in 1980 to spend more time with her parents, Joe and Janice. They had come to Hilton Head in 1969 and opened the Joe De Mers Gallery, Ltd. in Harbourtown during the island’s pioneer days. Danielle contributed two watercolor figure studies to the first Evening of the Arts auction in 1981 and in 1982, had her solo exhibition at Louanne LaRoche’s Red Piano Art Gallery.
“Most of my drawing and art evolves from observation of a model, and from life. My favorite mark-making tools are graphite, colored pencils, brush and ink and watercolor.
“Perhaps my most unconventional drawing tool now is a pair of sharp scissors. I often begin with no particular image in mind, allowing the forms to emerge from the gesture of my own hand. These cut outs become the basis of collage or transfers in my printmaking process.
“The cut outs of either cardboard or paper, with added shapes and textures of wine bottle metal, candy wrapper foil, bottle caps and other found material, lend themselves to my evolving exploration of layering to achieve transparency.”
The results are often vague and ethereal and challenge a response form the mind and emotions alike. Some of the figure studies are no more than a whisper of an arm or leg or a torso, yet they remain in the memory as vivid as anything clearly seen. Others in contrast are almost overwhelmingly strong with emphasis on a foot, a thigh or a spine. Her trees, flowers and fish are sometimes more representational than the figures and excitingly bold in the use of color.