We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Daniel Crosier. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Daniel below.

Daniel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?

I never really thought of painting murals much prior to 2016, however, Jim Norris and Matt Megyasi at Mutiny Cafe presented me with the challenge of taking my illustrated work on wood and in printed comics and slapping it on the wall. Challenge accepted! I sketched a design depicting a sphinx cat chomping on a grasshopper. To scale up I created templates and after trying those on the rough surface in Mutiny’s back alley I quickly realized eyeing the composition worked well enough for me. It was a whole confidence thing.

I am much more confident now and can work on much bigger projects, as long as I can generally measure things out to scale. Grids work well too. Currently I am finishing a mural for the Pueblo Levee Mural Project. I’ve had to learn a new set of skills to do that one as I have to repel down a levee wall.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a graduate of Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design from 2000 with a Bachelors in Sculpting. From their I figured out materials integrities where I was able to draw comics on wood. Create a stage production called OFM: OdAm fEI mUd where we dressed in monster suites with blood canons and did a choreographed fight play about corruption with a live band, taiko drums, and aerialists. Kind of a b-movie Cirque show. I co-directed a feature mockumentary called Isolation Man that you can watch on Troma Now. Currently I am a mural artist, I am partnered with Elisa Sargent and produce kid-friendly comics like Stanley Kaiju, and I am a co-founder of the horror convention, Colorado Festival of Horror.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I really do enjoy brightening up areas when I create a new mural. I have had many conversations with residents and the unhoused. They tend to appreciate what I do – it lifts spirits, and makes a space feel safer. This makes me happy.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Well, right now on the Pueblo Levee Mural Project in Pueblo, CO along the Arkansas River I had to learn to repelling down the wall in a safety harness and tether. By the next day I had to learn how to do that and strap a bucket of paint to my leg. Repel and paint! All this during a Colorado winter… however, we have had an unusually warm and dry winter. I’ll be heading out in two days to try and finish the painting. It is about 24’x30′. It is my largest piece. I’ll be fifty this year, and I figured I’d better hop on this project now because I might not be able to to do so later!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.whenbakedthingsattack.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daniel_crosier
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daniel.crosier

Image Credits

Photos by Daniel Crosier. Isolation Man film poster art by Alex Meyer.