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

Alright, Danielle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I would have to say that one of the most exhilarating risks I took occurred when I worked as a private detective. After some years working in the criminal justice system, I created a team of female investigators who were ex-bartenders – and we specialized in murder investigations. Our headquarters was located in a former Pinkerton detective office in downtown San Diego, California above a vibrant bar.

At one point we were retained to lead a team of male investigators working undercover as doctors at a conference in Charleston, South Carolina. Unexpected scrutiny by DEA agents at the airport unveiled my male colleagues’ concealed hunting rifles. This incident, coupled with a subsequent high-speed chase, not only tested my driving skills, but set me on the path of pursuing equality and empowerment in the workplace and society in general.

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?

Art, the cornerstone of my life since the age of 5, has framed my worldview. My life has been a blend of experiences spanning art, advocacy, and unexpected twists. From my early expulsion from high school at the age of 16 for being pregnant – to the role of labor negotiator advocating for raises for city employees like lifeguards and librarians – each chapter has been defined by resilience and creativity.

Experiences like learning to play classical music on a flute as a child and teaching myself how to make clothes all added to my journey as a creative. Whether I was involved teaching myself to sew dresses on my grandma’s trundle sewing machine or later, preparing work visa paperwork for foreign veterinarians as an immigration attorney, behind the scenes I grounded myself by drawing and painting. I am obsessed with color palettes. More recently, I’ve become very interested in licensing my oil painting artwork to garment manufacturers to create women’s clothing – which has merged my interests of painting and fashion.

My art has had an influence that has transcended boundaries and cultures in a way I did not see coming but is very gratifying! I was honored to be featured in Vanity Fair UK and on the cover of SELIN, an Amsterdam fashion magazine. At one point, the Shakespeare Theater of Oklahoma City commissioned a painting to advertise their play “Taming of the Shrew” and unexpectantly used the color palette of the painting for the costumes. The ambassador of the US Embassy in Bahrain asked me to exhibit my art in the embassy because he used to be a firefighter and he wanted to display my climate change art depicting abstract trees on fire.

Another surprising connection occurred between my work as an immigration lawyer and as an artist when a large abstract painting I completed of a woman’s face inspired 3 Los Angeles, California playwrights to create plays – and each play unexpectedly involved an immigration theme. I guess art can be a universal language that transcends borders.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

As an artist yearning to spend more time in my serene jungle art studio of Maui, the principles outlined in Dan Martell’s 2023 book “Buy Back Your Time” have become invaluable. Focused on empowering individuals to discover the true value of their time, Martell’s book delves into strategic delegation, particularly for repetitive tasks that tend to consume precious hours. His book helped me identify tasks that I could delegate, allowing me to reclaim hours otherwise lost in mundane administrative tasks. This newfound efficiency has translated directly into more time in the art studio.

As I became interested in transforming my hand painted oil paintings into fashion fabric prints, Mindy Martell’s 2023 book, “Get It Made,” served as a comprehensive guide for artists like me who are trying to merge their artistic vision with the fashion industry – and to do so, an understanding of the intricacies of garment manufacturing and fabric selection was crucial. Mindy Martell’s book provided me with a detailed description of the manufacturing process, demystifying the steps that are involved when bringing art to life through fashion textiles.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Most people don’t realize how much time abstract artists spend practicing their drawing skills! Whether it’s figuring out how the spaces between shapes affect the overall feel – or experimenting with different types of lines – drawing is the roadmap that guides us abstract artists in creating something meaningful.

Abstract art is not just about putting pencil or brush to paper; it’s about using drawing to turn abstract ideas into something visually striking. Even though abstract art doesn’t aim to look like real things, believe it or not, having strong drawing skills gives abstract artists like me the ability to play with shapes, proportions, and arrangements in a purposeful way. It’s like having a magical toolkit that allows us to express complex ideas and emotions through a mix of lines, forms, and colors.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.daniellenelisse.com
• Instagram: @daniellenelisse
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/daniellenelisseartist
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/daniellenelisse
• Other: Threads: @daniellenelisse

Image Credits
Brittney Baker