Dan was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where from an early age, he was provided with the necessary support and opportunities he would need to develop his skills as an artist.  At the age of eleven, his parents enrolled him in art school and he continued to draw and paint with watercolors throughout his Jr. High and High School years. After serving a mission for the LDS Church, he accepted scholarships to study Fine Art at Dixie College under Del Parson with a focus primarily on portraiture and the human figure. Following his two years at Dixie College, he again accepted scholarships to study Fine Art and Illustration under Perry Stewart at Southern Utah University. Since that time, he has completed illustrations for Ensign, Liahona, New Era, The Friend, Signs of the Times, and Listen Magazines. His work has also been used in sessions of General Conference to illustrate talks presented by Presidents Thomas S. Monson and James E. Faust of the First Presidency of the LDS Church. Other clients have included Southern Virginia University, Adoption LLC, as well as numerous portrait clients from around much of the U.S. For the past four years he has participated in the Sears Dixie Invitational Art Show (held in St. George, UT) and the Shenandoah Invitational Art Show (Buena Vista, Virginia). He has been honored with second and third place ribbons for oil paintings and pastel . In 2005, he received the Shenandoah Invitational People’s Choice Award. At these shows, his work has been displayed along side the work of many other artists whom he’s admired for years including: Del Parson, Greg Olsen, Joseph Brickey, Sam Lawlor, Luke Frazier, and Michael Malm. Most recently, he’s had work included in The Old Testament for LDS Families (published by Deseret Book), and had a painting on display in the Washington DC Temple’s Visitors Center as part of a collection gathered to commemorate Black History Month in February 2006.

    Dan is a full-time freelance artist living in Downey, ID with his wife and their two daughters. He has been painting professionally for ten years.