Dan Bodelson

1949 - 0000

Though Dan Bodelson was born in Minnesota, he grew up in Boulder, Colorado through his sophomore year in high school and then spent his last two years of high school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As Bodelson recalls, growing up he didn’t feel he was destined to be an artist. “I always drew, but just because I was a goof-off in school, not paying attention.” But, that all changed one day when his junior high art teacher assigned the class an outdoor watercolor project and Dan’s painting of the Flatirons rock formation near Boulder received high praise from his teacher.

When his family moved to New Mexico, during the summer between his sophomore and junior years of high school, Dan thought he’d “died and gone to hell.” He missed his friends back in Boulder and found the low brown adobe style buildings of Santa Fe depressing.

Upon graduating from high school, Bodelson was admitted to the California College of Arts and Crafts, now known as the California College of the Arts, in Oakland. Initially, he was interested in architectural rendering but soon changed his focus to art history and drawing. A course in illustration convinced him that it might be possible to earn a living as an artist. After earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, he worked for about a year with a San Francisco Bay Area Advertising Agency, but when the agency closed, he realized he missed the mountain landscapes of New Mexico and moved back to Santa Fe, where he got a job with a small ad agency and began showing his paintings at a local gallery. This time he found Santa Fe much more to his liking, commenting that, “Living in Santa Fe is ideal. There is a tremendous energy and creativity flowing there. Some of the best living artists are here and are willing to give help and share their experiences when asked.” Bodelson took full advantage of the environment, soaking up insights and guidance from the more experienced artists around him in Santa Fe, including Bettina Steinke, Clark Hulings, Tom Lovell, Robert Lougheed, and Wayne Wolfe. The painters of today that he admires include James Reynolds, Tom Lovell and Clark Hulings. “All of them have a deep love for what they do and a craftsmanship that sets them apart from others. Their painting goes far beyond subject matter or style -they reach out to you -and this is what I want my work to do.”

For Dan Bodelson, who among other things served as a volunteer fire fighter, there seems to be a creative energy that is a combination of instinct and training, running through every aspect of life. “It’s all relying on instinct and training. You have to trust both of those, and it applies to life as well as art,” he reflects. “It all ties together.”

Dan Bodelson’s paintings can be found in numerous private collections, including: the former governors Bruce King of New Mexico and Frank Keating of Oklahoma, movie director Steven Spielberg, composer John Williams, pitcher Nolan Ryan, and actors Amy Irving, Don Johnson, and Melanie Griffith.

BUFFALO HUNTER Oil on Linen 2012 30 x 40 inches

SNOW SOUNDS Oil on Linen 1980 22 x 28 inches