Links  to More Work and Current Shows Below & News About Our New Venture: "Sense & Serendipity"

I grew up in the St. Louis area during the 50's and 60's, I was drafted into the army in 1970 where I met my wife, Donna in Philadelphia a year later. Donna took notice of my casual interest in art and encouraged me to continue. This was important in my decision to pursue training at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1973-77. After finishing there, we moved to Sullivan County where we built our home and life in the pristine woods. My art and landscapes that I have created were produced out of the richness of my life with my family here in NE PA.

I enjoy direct encounters, plein air landscapes especially.
I paint because I wish to seek inside myself for self-discovery and connecting. I view my efforts creating images as a sensitizing process that promotes the possibility for elevating and transforming my spiritual being. I feel that the art forms created are not the end product. They can become beautiful symbols that traces the path of self-realization and spiritual rebirth. The arts possess the appeal of stimulation and entertainment. In our present time they need to be utilized for elevating and evolving our society. Many people remain spiritually undernourished and disconnected with nature and our creator. I feel that the end product in art is best reflected by transformation in the life of an artist; to what degree they are able to spread the message of spiritualism into increasing numbers of receptive souls.

Through Nature I attempt to absorb the purity and dynamics of the creation.
We are absorbed now with all of our "gadgets and improvements" so I appeal to become true to the heart. This would let our compassion provide a genuinely noble effort, saving humanity, integrity and a sense of harmonious living in tune with the mother earth. This is a moral issue of choice, for our children's future, between living, existing or dying. There finally is growing awareness about environmental concerns that scientists have been emphasizing for a number of years. I sense a strong collective interest and we must insist on an American movement by prioritizing and innovating the needed changes. We can set the example for the entire world.

The arts are a key component to educational development.
My work with students is evidence of an important sharing process that I use in combination with my own production of images. I hope to continue to influence the expansion of arts for all of our children. We should apply and integrate arts in a variety of forms in to the education process. We are all born with an artist that dwells within, and educators need to nurture this in each child. Then they can access inspiration, built-in wisdom, individual insights and sensitivity. This should be a basic expectation for human development. We should apply and integrate the arts into the mainstream of our lives and into our methods that define how we function. In nature we experience a model of perfection for harmony and balance; this is often emulated and translated through the beautiful harmonious elements which surface in art.

We can capture these dynamics and integrate them into our systems with fresh optimism, a new generation and the connection of creative thinkers. Through a reordering of priorities (putting ethics and morality in charge) we could use the wisdom of Einstein's perception, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." We need to imagine living in harmony with our natural system and begin to create ideas that will elevate our systems and use of technology. Let's fight the war on ignorance! Begin with all of our children at early ages to help get them connected with their innate wisdom and limitless capacities.

Through the arts I have been able redirect sometimes aggressive and indifferent youth towards productive changes in attitude. We need to utilize the arts to change the spiritual polarity from negative to positive. The power of the arts is clearly effective at disarming hostility and aggressive negative means for solving problems. How can we transfer this application more widely for our common good? As we continue to fight amongst one another globally, we distract ourselves and defer resources to supply help. Would it not show a mark of progress if we could set the example by implementing a non-violent method of resolving differences? I would like to encourage artistic insight for an internationally connected community to promoting peace and production instead of war, hatred and destruction. Isn't this the best message that Americans could promote? We could be the example, raise the bar, and achieve peaceful living through quality, integrity, productivity and independence. Just imagine.

My work in Job Corps resembles an on-going artist-in-residence
The connection with the students has given me a valuable experience as a teaching artist. To my surprise, exhibit opportunities that I have shared with students have led to high profile venues like the UN in NY City, Durban S. Africa and the Russell Rotunda in Washington DC. Students and I were connected to the International exhibit called "Breaking the Walls of Bias, Prejudice and Stigma." Coordinated by Marietta Dantonio-Fryer, Chairperson from the Art Dept. at Cheney University, Outreach Coordinator of the Survivors Art Foundation and sponsor of the UN events. She shared how grateful she was for the help supplied by Red Rock students under my direction saying, "I have worked with Dan before. The talent of his students and the depth of emotion in their work is astounding."
I provided the statement below that accompanied my silk banner for the exhibit in 2001 entitled, "Spiritual Poverty"

"SPIRITUAL POVERTY" Prejudice, bias and stigma are driven by our long-term spiritual famine. Spiritual leaders and prophets have given the message of spiritual awakening since the beginning of transcriptions. Do we still praise prophets from the past while we persecute living ones? An underdeveloped spiritual condition impairs understanding and promotes bias and prejudice. My image is a symbol of hope for a human metamorphosis (see silk banner image, to right). The caterpillar is a symbol for our awkward, slow spiritual habits, materialism and mass-consumerism in our finite earthly home. The chrysalis symbolizes hope for a spiritual transformation. The hands holding the earth symbolize differing races sharing our earthly home. The religious icons show our differing views and interpretations of the same creator. The butterfly resting on the creator's hand symbolizes our spiritual awakening and refinement. Society remains in the caterpillar stage of development and needs the spiritual transformation to reach a new definition for progress and well being. Our emphasis on materialism reflects our spiritual poverty. Our actions show how our priorities reflect disconnection with nature and the creator. It requires mindlessness and emptiness to continue to lay spoils to the world that we will pass onto our children. As an artist I attempt to view the scene with the awe and freshness of a child. I see the infinite complexity and beauty in nature as contrasted with the mechanical and indifferent geometry that man has fabricated. Man acts as an intruder in the ornate natural world with our technological advances that trifle in comparison to our creator's work. Our arrogance will lead us further into discord and futility, but our humbleness will lead us toward harmony and progress. As pessimists, we are already doomed by the lack of faith in human capacity. As optimists we will take steps forward to seek the miracle of a spiritual awakening and metamorphosis. The closer I see nature through art, the more I can appreciate how Native Americans showed reverence and respect for our natural world. We have left scars, after displacing their culture in the name of expansion and "progress". We can re-define progress now if we want or wait until the urgency defines it for us. I have no Native American ancestry that I know of, however, I can adopt them as spiritual brothers. Where can I find a leader in our world today that would relate a message like this? "Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but the thread of it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. Whatever befalls the earth befalls also the children of the earth." (Chief Seattle's address to President Franklin Pierce, 1855) Dan Curry, 2001

I networked again recently with Marietta Dantonio-Fryer when we joined other US Artists/Educators for an International Art Exhibition at the Cairo Opera House in Cairo, Egypt in September of 2006. Nabil Makar, an Egyptian Artist living in the US planned, coordinated and participated in the exhibit. One of our Egyptian colleagues, Makram Henien, provided the following statement in the program guide for the exhibit:

"Yes, the world now needs more than any time else a revolution for peace between citizens, a revolution right, goodness, beauty, the return of the missed love between people, accepting the other, reserving the humanity values, keeping away from racial discrimination, and destructive ethnicity, so all of us need the creation of the artist, not only one but for thousands of them to support these values into the emotion of human beings.
The art is an international language which surpasses the imaginaly geographical borders and carried out through eyes to the memory.
The feeling that the artist spread making a marvelous dialogue between him and the others.
The simple means of the artist to achieve this are: font, colouer, area, mass, and space which can not be activated in the receiver unless the artist coat them with his feelings, vision, thoughts, his special style, the depth of his talent, and his own instinct
In this meeting, all the artists meet together to show their work with all respectfully, and kindly. They want to create a base that implies hope for people, and an invitation for meeting each other and working together for achieving the great goals. All the artist in the world condemn the wars, and hate racial discrimination murder, terrorism, termination, and all other terrible crimes of this age.
This meeting represents an opening on these principles, which is presented by a group of Egyptian artists who live in The States with their prominent American colleagues.
We also should appreciate the great effort made by the great artist Nabeel Makkar who is one of the first emigrant Egyptian artists to The States, who was able to form this group aims to communicate among different civilizations.
Makram Henien
Art consultant for AL-Ahram

The translation of Mr. Henien's statement from Arabic to English was indeed interesting to see however, I would submit that some simple mistakes in the wording occurred and I chose not to edit his quote in order to correct this. For the sake of clarity in his beautiful statement I would substitute the word imaginary with imaginaly. And in the second to the last paragraph I believe Mr. Henien meant to indicate that the meeting was between a group of Egyptian artists from Egypt who were able to meet with American colleagues which included a native Egyptian, Nabil Makar, who is a US citizen and was our mutual connection to this event. Mr. Makar also included as participants, US artists who were natives of European and Asian countries.

Dan's Virtual Gallery:
Studio Landscapes
Plein-Air Landscapes
The Atlantic Coast

PA Sales Tax is applicable on all sales
Please Direct Ordering Inquiries to: donnac@chilitech.net

Shows & Exhibits Where Dan's Work May Be Viewed:
Dan's paintings, prints and giclee prints can be seen at these locations on-going: The Art Gallery at Katie's Country Store in Muncy Valley, The Sharon Moore Gallery in Souderton, PA, The Secret Garden Art Gallery in Ocracoke, NC, Campolo School for Social Change in Philadelphia PA and Sense & Serendipity in Dushore. Dan also offers art workshops. If interested please contact the artist for more details. Curry recently attended a juried international art exhibit that featured his art at the Cairo Opera House from September 12-28th of 2006. Dan maintains an ongoing exhibit of his art at the Sense & Serendipity shop's rear gallery area. Dan's next 2 exhibits will be at the Sense & Serendipity art gallery in February of 08 and at the Secret Garden Art gallery in Ocracioke in May of 08.

"Sense & Serendipity"
      Dan and his wife Donna, a Registered Nurse and Massage Therapist, opened Sense & Serendipity, an art and healing center, in November 2004. Donna offers massage therapy in a separate space specially designed to relax body, soul and spirit. This unique business venture features Dan's artwork and that of other area artists and artisans creating a special, exciting atmosphere. Some of the artists featured ongoing at this time are Gail Jones, a clay and fabric artist of Sullivan County; Barbara Hardy, jeweler in Sterling Silver of Ocracoke, NC; Mary Ellen Minnier, Jeweler in beadwork and scrimshaw of Dushore; and Dan's prints and paintings. Craftspeople featured are Candella Shaffer of Dushore who offers aromatherapy candles; Jewel Cicero of Dushore who offers embroidered clothing; Linda White from Lick Creek who offers wheel-thrown pottery; and Laura Curry of Ocracoke, NC offers aromatherapy bath salts, lotions, eye pillows and other unique items promoting calm and wellness. Sense and Serendipity is an art gallery featuring an ongoing schedule of local artists, emerging young artists and established artist from near and afar.

      Donna Curry is a RN with BS in Health Arts, trained in massage therapy at Lehigh Valley Healing Arts Center in Allentown, PA. Massage appointments can be made by calling 928-7025 or by visiting the shop.
      The shop is located at 218 Center Street, Dushore PA directly across from the Dushore Fire Co. For more information phone 570-928-7025 or e-mail donnac@chilitech.net.
      Coffee lovers stop in for cappuccino, latte or espresso! Or try a tasty cup of tea, a refreshing "smoothie" or a bagel with cream cheese. In the warmer months we offer Italian Ice and iced coffee.

Quest Publishing Home