We were lucky to catch up with Dani Samson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dani thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on was a stop motion music video for “Love Song” by La Poré, which was released in April 2021.

This project was incredibly personal, because I collaborated with my best friend and partner in life, my husband, Nick Samson aka La Poré. The song was inspired by our experience of living in partnership and facing challenges together. It felt incredibly natural for me to interpret the themes of the song through my creative practice, because in my own work, I often contemplate the dynamics of home life and our psychological or spiritual experience of it. This “marriage” of our respective practices felt so right.

This piece was especially exciting for me as an artist because, as a mixed media painter who has always created static work, this was my first time-based work. Also, I had wanted to work on a stop motion project since I was a child. I used to obsess over the special features clips on my Corpse Bride DVD, marveling at the art of stop motion animation.

The animation is essentially the development of an image, that image being one of our actual living room. The room comes together over time, and life’s little moments are woven throughout. What I find compelling is, although there is a final image at the end, it is more about the passing of time and the journey it took to get to that place.

Nick and I discuss the meaning and making of the music video more in-depth in this video on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/TZesWY1O6vU

At the end of our conversation, you can watch the music video in its entirety.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The focus of my work is processing life through the lens of mixed media. I explore the symbolic connections between art, everyday life, and mindfulness by upcycling and recycling scrap materials into fine art and handmade, artful products. I share my work and my reflections on this process in a way that is accessible and encouraging to people regardless of their familiarity with art making. They are sort of Bob Ross-like videos, and I share them on my YouTube channel in order to demystify the art making process and provide an inside look into the mind of an artist. I also share my reflections in a bi-weekly newsletter.

The mixed media artworks that I create are a celebration of the materials I use, which can include anything, but often are materials I have found or repurposed from previous collages, drawings, sketches, and paintings. I think this speaks to the cyclical nature of the universe as well as the routines and rituals that shape our day-to-day lives. I am so fascinated by the fact that we and most things in the universe are all made up of the same stuff. That stuff gets broken down and reshaped to make new stuff. That’s how my practice works most of the time.

Side note: I’ve recently begun exploring the art of handmade paper using recycled scrap paper!

Throughout my career, I have held various positions as an art instructor, facilitator, and administrator. Although I am not an art therapist, I also have some experience in the realm of art therapy. One consistent belief that I’ve held during all of my experience is that all humans are creative. I believe that everyone is touched by art in one way or another, and we all have the ability to access the joys of making.

I am proud of the practice I’ve built around demystifying my process and bringing others into the mind of an artist, encouraging them to reflect and become more comfortable with art. I believe that art and symbolism are powerful tools that help us find peace and meaning in our lives. They nurture our imagination, our capacity to love, and our openness to appreciating small joys in life.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

There have certainly been many pivots in my life and my creative career. When I was an undergraduate student studying psychology and studio art, I think I suppressed my desire for a career in art. I used my degree (BA in psychology with a minor in studio art) to pursue a Masters in Art Therapy and Counseling. When I look back on it, I realize that perhaps I felt something like that would be more sustainable from a financial standpoint. There was some conditioned idea in my mind that I couldn’t make a living as an artist alone. So, I borrowed lots of money to go to that graduate program only to drop out a year later. Without telling the whole story, it was a very emotionally turbulent time of my life.

I struggled to find my way as an artist for two years before I enrolled in the MFA program at Columbus College of Art & Design. At that point, things began to go really well in the arts community of my hometown! Then, almost immediately after graduating, I happily married another artist and excitedly moved to LA… four months before a global pandemic.

Pandemic aside, the first couple of months we lived in LA, I struggled really hard to adjust to the fact that the entire social and professional network I built in Columbus was now 2,000 miles away. The pandemic was a whole other personal struggle for us all. There was a silver lining to it, though. By March of 2020, I was drowning in my side-gigs, so the sudden stay-at-home order allowed me the time to make a lot of art. I believe that’s what provided the momentum I needed to get to where I am today.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Your Art Will Save Your Life by Beth Pickens

During a time when I contemplated whether my art was important and worthwhile, whether I should be making art at all, a friend suggested this book to me. It really helped pull me out of a very dark period of my creative journey.     

Contact Info:

• Website: www.calicoflowerstudio.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/calicoflowerstudio
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/calicoflowerstudio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dani-michaux-samson-7b233160
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@calicoflowerstudio