Dan's book about a compilation of his paintings
Dan and his "Money Book"
FAUVE's Album "Blizzard"
Dan mentioned by FAUVE in their acknowldegements. Dan is currently pursuing a project with FAUVE.
Another of Dan's painting hanging in his kitcken.
Dan Castle's film "Newcastle"
DAN CASTLE Part III of III
Writer/Director, Musician, Painter,
Photographer
I have no
idea how Dan can keep up with all his inspirations. I have a difficult time
writing about it because it appears like he is doing so much in a given time. I
don’t know how to put his stories in one smooth flowing narrative. I am actually
making it sound like his works, in film and painting, overwhelming which is not
the case, they are all there to enrich the soul not suffocate it—His paintings
are excellent examples of it.
He has a
book out, aptly entitled “Sunflower Days”, a collection of his Impressionistic
oil paintings, and is available on Itunes. While I’m no art connoisseur and
could not give you an authoritative opinion of it, I can confidently tell you
that his artwork, to me, evokes serenity and quiet joy. His paintings appear to
personify his inner self, since his persona looks hard-as-nails rock star yet
his paintings are as sunny and uplifting as a sunflower (Dan please don’t kill
me for describing you as “Sunny”). On his website he cited Vincent van Gogh as
one of his favorite painters. I read Van Gogh was also bad-ass, apparently he
lost his ear in a knife-fight, look up one of his self-portraits and you would
understand what I’m talking about.
Working on
your art doesn’t necessarily mean creating it. There are a lot of actions to
take to get to the end product. Fundraising campaigns, going to school, going
places…those are small steps but one had just to move towards the creation
process. That I think is what Dan meant about placing importance on the
“process”. “A man gets to be immortal with his work and like other artists I
just want to leave something behind long after I am gone…I just want to create
beauty…so all the steps I took (learning book keeping, fund raising campaigns,
going to school, travelling) are all the process to materialize my work”.
And so he
does, create beauty and leave it for us to marvel with—like his paintings and
drawings, photographs, films and music in the soundtracks in his film—to
inspire us. That’s really the legacy he is after—since he himself was inspired
by others before him—such as Pro Hart. Actually he and his partner Corey Page
are co-producing a biographical film, with lead producer Philippa Pomeranz and
scriptwriter Richard Burman called “Chasing Dragonflies”, about this visionary
Australian artist (Dan is currently working on the theme song for the film and
that they had just finished a fundraising campaign this June. Check it out on www.facebook.com/ProHart
).
Speaking of
inspiring, while Dan was in Paris studying art, he met the band members of
“Fauve” in a pub called Frog and Rosbif. They must’ve had one invigorating and
interesting discussion since Fauve wrote a song stemming from that chat. The
song’s title is “Cock Music Smart Music”. The band is very big in France, they
are an eclectic group who plays electronica and punk/rock/rap music; and even
though I can’t understand their lyrics, I can understand why they are big. I’m
listening to it, for the fifth time, as I work on this piece and I can’t stop
bobbing my head to it.
Right now
Dan is focused on his music and he can be usually seen in Canter’s Deli Kibitz
Room where he sometimes performs during Open Mic night. The Kibitz Room is a
Rock and Roll mecca here in Los Angeles where band members of the Doors, Guns
N’ Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, just to name a few, used to hang out before
they no longer able do so upon reaching their rock-stardom status and fear of
being mobbed by hysterical fans (I am making sure to stay in contact with Dan
since I want to see his performance again, and so that I can brag that I get to
chat with him in the legendary bar).
Henri
Matisse, the great expressionist artist (or impressionist, depends on who you
talk to), once said “Creativity Takes Courage”. I see a lot of courage in Dan.
His short film “The Visitor” is a gay-themed film created in the time when
there wasn’t so many films created in that genre.
His latest
endeavor with his friends, a biographical film about Pro Hart, the father of
Australian Outback painting, sure won’t be hitting the summer box office
bonanza here in the US—but he does it. It appears that he doesn’t care if he is
directly responsible for bringing beauty or helping bringing the beauty as long
as it’s materialized for all of us to enjoy and find ourselves in.
Over and
over again Dan says to me “materialize it…create it…take the step…do the
process…” now I understand that what he is saying is Take Courage, Create Beauty.
End of Part
III
Note: there are
so many things that Dan and I talked about and I have particular quotes from
him that I find enriching but unable to coalesce into the articles. One of
these days I will post them.
All photos
and article are copyrighted.
Copyright
2013 RG Los Angeles Stories
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