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Daniel merriam

United States • born in 1963

Biography and information

Daniel merriam (eng. Daniel merriam, February 1, 1963) - an outstanding contemporary American artist and illustrator, known for his original masterly works at the junction of fantasy, surrealism and symbolism.

Features of the artist: The worlds of Daniel Merriam, created by the artist’s boundless bold imagination, are characterized by a variety of colors, shapes and symbols. They almost always have light and airyarchitectural forms and facilities. These fragile fabulous houses (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6th, 7th) literallyhover among the clouds, flowers, birds (1, 2, 3), fish (1, 2, 3), butterflies (1, 2, 3), bubbles (1, 2, 3) and other attributes of bizarre dreams.
Here everything is created for visual and emotional pleasure. Puppet fairies flit around the streets (1, 2, 3), on the branches sit funny animal-bird-insects (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6th, 7th), happy cats walk down the steps (1, 2,3).

The creative space of the artist is colored by the influence of the “universes” of Hieronymus Bosch, Lewis Carroll, Jules Verne, Salvador Dali, Maxfield Parrish and the author’s touching love for the attributes of the Victorian era.

Merriam works jewelery with capricious watercolors and acrylics and is recognized as a virtuoso of his own dry brush technique and the creator of a recognizable creative style, called the “esthetic dada” by the author.

Famous paintings by Daniel Merriam: "Thin line", "The history of fish", "Angelica".

Daniel Merriam was born and raised in a large family in a quiet American province. He loved to climb to the top of the tallest tree in the area: from here a panoramic view of the hilly landscape of York Harbor, the “gingerbread” colonial and Victorian wooden houses built by shipmakers were opened. The landscapes and architecture of the worlds of the future surrealist were born here.

All seven children in the family of the construction engineer Fremont Merriam turned out to be creatively gifted, and it was extremely difficult for the father to decide who would be responsible for the family building business. After seeing the drawings of Daniel and appreciating his courage and curiosity, his father gladly taught the boy in the carpentry workshop.

Receiving education at the Central Technical College of Maine, the future artist was preparing to work in the family design and construction business. After studying mechanical and architectural design, he began to work with his father.

But very soon the young architect realized that true pleasure and recognition would bring him the “construction” of fabulous houses on paper and canvas. For the sake of his vocation, he abandoned his lucrative work at a growing father company and at the age of 23 he moved to Portland.

The first creative experiments had to be performed in a rented dark and musty basement of the city art gallery, where Merriam spent the night and painted his first works. A furnace that blew up at night, dirty water flooding the basement, and cracking collapsing walls often forced the artist to spend winter nights on snowy streets. But pride did not allow to surrender and return under the roof of a family home, and perseverance and hard work opened the door to an artistic community for talent.

Already in 1987, Daniel Merriam organized his first exhibition and immediately received recognition from the audience.

The artist, by his own admission, draws “... on everything that is possible to draw. After all, Mother Nature is always experimenting. ”

Despite the recent shock (the artist’s house and studio burned down, fortunately, none of the inhabitants was hurt - there were also pets running away in a panic - cats), after some time the master pleases the audience with his works.

Today, Daniel Merriam is a commercially sought-after, recognized artist. His paintings are on display at several American museums (including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of American Illustration). The artist holds exhibitions in the USA, Europe and the Middle East, illustrates books, creates designs for posters and theatrical performances.

Awarded several Broderson prizes and the New England Scholastic Press Association Prize. Since 1997 he has been living and working in San Francisco (USA).

The author: Victoria Volkova