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"I have worked in clay for the past 12 years. During this time I have completed two apprenticeships, taken numerous workshops on advanced ceramic techniques and have sold work at numerous juried Fine Art and Craft shows. In addition, my work has been purchased by collectors throughout the U.S. and abroad. My philosophy is that craft and the arts create culture. Through my craft of fine art ceramics, I have the opportunity to practice an ancient tradition, while helping to shape a new culture. Few of us get to pursue our truest and deepest passion as an everyday career, and even fewer of us know what that passion is early in life.
Each element of my work is handcrafted by me in Berkeley, CA. My main tool for creating ceramic artwork is the potters wheel; however, I also create limited addition wall pieces using hand building techniques and tools. From designing and creating the work to formulating glazes and firing kilns, I am the only person involved in the creation of these one of a kind ceramic art pieces. All my work is dishwasher, microwave, and oven-safe."
Danny Dastrup is among the lucky few, who knew a life of clay was for him at the tender age of seventeen. It was love at first touch in a high school ceramics class. Danny had a bond with clay that was unexplainable, even to him! Realizing how powerful this bond was and the importance that clay would have in his life, he knew he had to find an instructor who shared the same bond and passion for clay. In 1996 Danny began an apprenticeship at the Red Kiln Studios in his home town of Salt Lake City, Utah with clay artists, Aaron Ashcroft, Richard Barker and Ken Marvel. They mentored and taught Danny skills, techniques, and philosophies that would merge with his gifts and talents and inspire him to make clay work a full time venture. He pays homage to his three teachers by keeping their photo's hanging above his potters wheel. While Danny has a style all his own and has developed many of his own techniques, the influences of these masters still breathe life into the clay that spins on his potters wheel.
Now, a decade later, Danny teaches and mentors budding artists himself and continues to exhibit his work around the country. His pottery has a loyal following and has been acquired in private collections in the US, Japan, Russia, Spain, Jamaica, New Zealand and South Africa.
Recently Danny was a recipient of a career grant from the Marin Arts Council. This grant has allowed Danny to reach an even broader audience with his work, making Danny's goal of bringing art into people's everyday experiences even easier.
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