Meet Daniel Segrove | Artist & Art Instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Daniel Segrove and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Daniel, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I spent much of my young life escaping into my creativity and daydreaming about living a life full of art. I would often draw in class and look at famous artworks. I would take every art class I had the opportunity to take. Pursuing art as a career never felt like a choice but just the natural progression of my life. I don’t think of art as a career path but instead the pursuit of living a life full of creativity. I enjoy creative projects and the opportunities to meet other creative people. Creating art helps me to view the world with a broader and empathetic perspective. Viewing art helps me feel more connected to myself and others. I believe that art is a force for good in the world and I hope that by being an artist I can play some small part in that.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a mixed media artist that focuses on portraits and figures. I enjoy creating works that have a strong emotional narrative to the work. I create this by exploring composition, texture, and mediums. I often have highly rendered figures that are contrasted with abstract elements that deconstruct the overall image. I enjoy how this blurs the line of realism and abstract techniques. I think that there is too much separation between the different art movements. There is a lot of creative potential in combining different schools of thought to create something original. I hope to explore this to its fullest with my work.

I think that I, as well as many artists, deal with self-doubt when creating art. I take my art seriously and it can make me a perfectionist. This creates doubts that I will not be able to achieve my vision for the artwork. However, over the years the lesson I have learned from this is to focus on the process and not the result. I know this is cliche, but that’s because it’s an obvious truth we forget in the studio that needs repeating. Creating art is more about the journey and not the destination.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Most of my friends are artists, so I would plan the day to go like this. We would start off in Golden Gate Park at Stow Lake (now called Blue Heron Lake). Going for a walk to talk and check out all the local critters there as we make our way to the De Young Museum. From there we head over to Kevin’s Noodle House to enjoy a bowl of Pho. From there we catch the N Judah down to the ocean and grab a drink at the Java Beach cafe and enjoy the beach and sun. From there we teleport to SFMoMa to continue our day of art hopping and getting inspired by the greats that show there. Around that area, we would also check out my favorite gallery, Dolby Chadwick, as they show some of my favorite contemporary figurative painters. At this point, it would probably be a good time to grab a slice of pizza at Tony’s Slice House and rest at Washington Square park. To end the night, I would take them up to Twin Peaks for the panoramic view of the bay and nerd out about all the great art we saw that day.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I owe a lot of gratitude to my instructors in college. Ho jun Lee, Zhaoming Wu and Kevin Moore just to name a few. Having been surrounded by their talent and creativity was a big inspiration to push myself as an artist. They set the foundation for my skill and art knowledge to have the success I was able to achieve in my life. Having my art peers like Justin Hopkins, Drew Price, and Grant Yoshino to grow with has also been a driving force for my success. I have had many opportunities thanks to them to show my artwork and collaborate on many rewarding projects. I think being an artist is about being a community and there are many people I could thank who have played a part in my artistic life.

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