About Dan Marek

"I've lived an interesting life, often against my own will," laughs Dan as he sits down at his table to start work on his next piece.

Dan grew up in a small rural town in Oregon south of Eugene. Time spent with family, especially his grandma and great-grandparents were formative moments in his journey.

"Grandma would sit me down for oil painting lessons when I was about 6 years old. I remember her telling me everything I was doing was wrong but then I would watch her paint over my work and I learned a lot.

We would practice art and then Grandma would teach us how to survive if a mountain lion attacked us outside. Then she would kick us outside to play for the day. It was a different time."

Dan spent time at his great-grandparents house looking through books on UFOs, cryptids and the Bermuda triangle.

While working as a Graphic Designer and eventually a Creative Director, Dan studied how to draw hands, the history of gestures and American Sign Language along with anatomy.

The work of David Lynch and other surrealists like Salvador Dali and Stanley Kubrick had a big influence on Dan's work along with comic book art and pulp fiction.

Dan later discovered that his great-great grandmother had been a palm reader, furthering the link between the esoteric and hands. 

Dan Marek's artwork is deeply entrenched in spiritual themes combined with hand gestures and facial emotions. Dan describes his subject matter as equal parts heavenly dreams and terrifying nightmares.