Dana Telsrow
Biographical Info
Artist Dana Telsrow has lived in Iowa City since 2009, when he enrolled in the University of Iowa as a tuba performance major. At the university, he became interested in other artistic genres such as painting and poetry. After graduating, he toured and recorded as a solo musician, performed in a variety of bands and worked as a part-time audio engineer at Flat Black Studios in Iowa City. He has worked at the University of Iowa since his undergraduate days making marketing videos. During the pandemic, drawing became his primary creative outlet. Dana considers himself “a student of art in a very broad sense of the word. My drawing and painting is typically figurative and often in the realm of portraiture.” In addition to attending most Arts Iowa City’s ArtiFactory figure drawing sessions, Dana studies drawing with UI Art Professor Jimmy Miracle. Dana’s work has been exhibited in galleries around the country, most recently at the Edgewater Gallery in Fort Bragg, California, the Tieton Arts and Humanities Center in Tieton, Washington and the Corgi Clay Art Center in Stafford, Virginia. For more of Dana’s work click here.
Arts Iowa City’s ArtiFactory: Can you elaborate on the statement: I am “a student of art in a very broad sense of the word. My drawing and painting is typically figurative and often in the realm of portraiture.” The basic principles of creativity rhyme across every discipline. Comedy, cuisine, composition, choreography. I’m always studying human creations to understand what makes them shine or fall flat. Currently, I’m taking a lot of photographs, but I’m still applying all the things I’ve learned from other art forms over the years.
I like when a portrait makes you laugh. I really like when you look at a portrait and go “this shouldn’t look like them but somehow it does.” The portraits I’m hanging in this particular show are mostly attempts at accuracy and don’t necessarily reflect that. I’m trying to improve my ability to draw things as they are so that I can understand more fully what they look like. My hope is that it will give me a greater ability to create robust “HAHA!” pictures in the future.
How did you choose the pieces for this show? Which is your favorite and why? Which was the most challenging to produce? This show is a selection of things I created during the last year or so. Decisions were made based on what was already in a frame and what I hadn’t already thrown out or recycled. I go through phases, but I don’t tend to have favorites (that will likely be very apparent when you look at everything up on the walls). The graphite drawings require the most meticulous patience, and I had to take a break from them as fall turned to winter.
The first half of your career is largely taken up with performing music. During the pandemic you shifted to drawing. Since then, have you found ways to reconcile music and art? What skills as a musician do you bring to the visual arts? Music and drawing/painting share vocabulary like tone, rhythm, composition, and dynamics. Jimmy often uses musical analogies to explain a concept in his painting and drawing classes. The two are more closely related than it seems. My favorite parts of music were always the things I did alone like writing, arranging, and producing. I was never super comfortable performing for an audience, despite any outward appearances. I also didn’t love playing the same thing over and over; I got bored easily. Visual art has solved both of those issues.
What makes Iowa City great for artists, writers, musicians, and other creatives? Many people who live here are either maintaining some sort of creative practice themselves or are at least actively participating in supporting and witnessing creative work in the community. You can regularly see world-class art here and have conversations with people at the top of their craft.
How has Arts Iowa City’s ArtiFactory supported your journey? Going to the ArtiFactory sessions has become an important part of my routine. I get to work with a model on a consistent basis and learn from the other artists around me. I’m pretty introverted so it’s also a more comfortable way for me to socialize and be part of a group that shares a common interest.