I'm often asked for an artist's statement to include with an exhibit or for some other purpose. My sculpture is my statement. However, the most concise group of words about my sculpture was written some time ago by a great artist.


I've always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have the light joyousness of springtime which never let anyone suspect the labor it cost me.



Henri Matisse
DANCES WITH STEEL

In a career spanning three decades, Jerry Daniel's work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe. Jerry performed a commission for the Gustav Wolf Art Museum in Germany, and his sculpture was selected by the U.S. Ambassador to Austria for display on the embassy estate in Vienna from the Hall’s personal collection.

Dance has been a major focus of my work and it goes through various metamorphisis of styles. For some time now I've been reducing the human form into the simplest recognizable works to convey the joy and celebration of life through dancing themes. The negative spaces the figures create and their harmony with each other are an important part of the total form. The simplicity of a calligraphic brushstroke executed three-dimensionally in space, is for me, the Haiku poetry of sculpture. (Some of the sculptures are even named Haiku Dancers) Each work is one of a kind using variations of the same basic parts and sizes which vary from table top size pieces to sculptures thirty feet tall.

Born and raised in the rural Southwest, Jerry has received degrees in art and sculpture. While earning outstanding achievements and respect in the fields of art education and design, he has never abandoned his commitment to his vision as a working artist. Jerry holds memberships in numerous professional art organizations. As a member of the Texas Sculpture Association (TSA), he has served two years on the Board of Directors as well as two terms as President of the TSA.

AWARDS & CAREER

For over four decades, Jerry Daniel’s sculptures have been exhibited and collected in the United States from coast to coast, as well as in Germany and Austria.

In 1997, he received the First Juror’s award for a one-person exhibit at the Dallas Visual Arts Center (D-Art). The poster announcing that show was titled “Jerry Daniel: Dances with Steel.” It inspired the signature he has used ever since.

Included in that exhibit were a group of seven Haiku Dancers created ten years earlier. This well-traveled group of Dancers had been viewed in exhibits and galleries in Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Colorado. Although winning awards and recognition from jurors and the public, only three of the original ten sculptures were purchased by collectors. From the 1997 Dallas exhibit, one patron purchased six of the seven. Another client bought the remaining Dancer and engaged the artist to create another to make a pair. A developer then commissioned him for a group of five Dancers for a Dallas project and another pair for a development in Addison, TX.

In 1999, five of Daniel’s Dancers were installed in the sculpture garden of the U.S. ambassador’s estate in Vienna, Austria. This exhibit was part of the international “Art in the Embassies” program. Next, the artist was commissioned to create a sculpture of the entry of the Hall Office Park in Frisco, TX. The Result was a pair of thirty-foot tall Dancers, Dancers MM, installed in the fall of 2000. They became the gateway to the newly created Texas Sculpture Garden and the logo for the Hall Office Park.

The artist has continued to create, exhibit and install his welded-steel Dancers ranging in height from two to twenty feet. They are owned by collectors, corporations, and municipalities throughout the United States, from Miami to Los Angeles and Philadelphia to Honolulu.