Dan Harland West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Back to profiles

Dan Harland is a painter based in Leeds, U.K. He translates the collage of memory and imagination that occupies the mind's eye, in Oil and Acrylic. Motifs such as goal posts and unruly brambles appear as representations of the push and pull of fear and sanctuary in childhood and throughout life.

Every experience we have is informed by a previous one. I won’t be licking a battery again. I remember the spasm in my tongue and the metallic taste. A hint of sweetness to it? Rubbing the point of contact against the roof of my mouth which filled with saliva. Like a sour sweet to the power of ten. The shock of it reminds me of the time I played with the cigarette lighter in my dad’s van when I was about five. Touched my little finger against it and dropped it into the footwell. The smell of the petrol station, dad gone to pay and my eyes filling with tears. Needing help and nobody coming. I had a recurring dream where I was being held captive by a witch from a Tom and Jerry cartoon with multicoloured sparks coming out the back of her broomstick.

I am a painter who is interested in the crossover of memory, imagination and the subsequent unconscious connotations that grow from them. My themes orbit fear and sanctuary through the eyes of an individual; navigating a path through identity and society with the burden of anxiety. My reference point is the mind’s eye. The one thing nobody else can comprehend without visual translation via the artist’s hand.

I distil memories into motifs which combine with imagined connotations to create a painted collage of a train of thought. References are largely memories combined with photographic sources when more detail is necessary. As the mind and it's frenetic flicking from one thing to another is my focus, I tend not to plan my compositions too rigidly. I prefer to let ideas come and go and follow the natural connections that come with recollection. This allows me to be more playful. Rather than feeling trapped by the naturalistic tones and forms of a photo reference or a precise plan from the outset, I can base my next brushstroke on the qualities of the ones before.

I work both in large and small scale. The large are a portal to a walkable world. The small are a keyhole to peer through at a fragment of narrative.

Influences include classic illustrations of fairy tales, the film and television that formed my foundations for the imagery of fear and sanctuary, and real-world recollections. From gnarled trees, grabbing at your clothing as you run from the huntsman in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to the football goal frame in a recently mown field; a place to be with friends without the social minefield of conversation.

I’m looking for answers. Answers to why I don’t have a strong sense of self and how to find my place in the world.

And I’m reaching out to anyone who might feel the same.