Why Am I An Artist.....Here is the Very Short Version.

My name is Daniel Quinonez. I was born in East Los Angeles November 29th 1966 to a single mother. I was raised in Anaheim California. My mother married when I was 7 and I became Daniel Barringer. My life was a challenge for better words. I learned the whole spectrum of emotions in those formative years. I experienced all highs and all lows at a very young age. The experiences molded me into a very creative person for the single purpose to entertain myself to escape the tragedy we call life. Looking back it was a balance for me. I had an equal portion of these emotions I experienced. So in a very ironic twist it was healthy that I had gone through all of the bad and good at the same time. When I was old enough to make a decision to stay in that drama or leave…I left at 17 and joined the Marine Corps. That entity became my mother and father for 5 years. A whole new set of challenges were before me. The main challenge was to figure out how to become a man. That voyage continues to this day. Fatherhood, responsibility, respect, disappointment, regret, love, relationship, persistence, consistency all are but a small example of experiences which have molded me and continue to do so daily. Through all of that my art was there to hold me when I needed. Creating was an outlet for me to see within. I would tap into that here and there and not often enough. Later in life as recent as 2002 I figured out that the gift I had to create pieces of work that can open life for another was special to me. Creating works of art that made people happy is a part of me fulfilled. I needed that. I started to develop a hunger inside of me to create all the time. I started to let go of the restraints I had put on myself to let go of the pain inside through this channel. Creating art was a vehicle to love others and in turn I could heal. Today I create to live. No matter the drama that unfolds in my life daily I have my art to let the pain and discomfort of life and transform those emotions into beauty and love. I have a gift God-given to create pieces of art work that can reveal the love of another. Art reveals love in a person. It can connect with an individual like nothing else. One piece might totally be disgusting to one person and the next person that sees it is filled with random beautiful exciting emotions. When I see that I am excited to create another piece. I have learned when I think I need to throw away a piece…..I hold on to it and later change or add and adjust that piece…reveal it and then someone comes to it and claims it for themselves. It might sit in my house for a couple of years…and then someone finds it and BAM! Just like that it becomes THEIR masterpiece. It is a wonderful feeling, emotion, unexplainable thing I feel. My life has created who I am today. An Artist. Daniel Quinonez. Artist.