Graham Dane says creating with children is “always a surprise.”
“The thing I like about working with young kids is I never knew I painted things like crocodiles or dinosaurs, or strips of salmon hanging up or washing dry, because they will look at a painting and they will see an entire world,” he said.
Dane is an educator, artist and broadcaster, as well as the co-founder and instructor of Spenard Art Camp, which he started alongside his wife and fellow artist Linda Infante Lyons.
Their first camp was around 2016 or 2017 at The Nave in Spenard, Dane said. The camp works with 7 to 11-year-olds, and at the end of the week, campers share their work in an art show that is open to parents and guardians.
“It is remarkable what [children] produce,” he said.
In addition to teaching elementary-aged kids, Dane is an adjunct art professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
“I’ll be in the studio for about three hours before I go in to teach,” Dane said. “But basically the days I’m not teaching — including the weekends — Linda and I are always painting. I’m usually in the studio, I would say 95% of the time I’ll be in the studio unless something comes up.”
Dane recently curated a show at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art featuring works by 13 artists with the organization Contemporary British Painting. He specializes in abstract art, and helps plan other events at The Nave; Dane has been organizing a Fine Art Fair that will take place in October and be a day-long event featuring about 25 artists, he said.
“I would say that I am genuinely blessed,” he said. “I am extremely fortunate in life that I get to do what I do, and I get to do it on a daily basis.”
Dane has a radio show, “Art Matters,” which can be heard on Out North Radio 106.1 FM every Saturday from 11 a.m. to noon. He began the show in 2019, and says the possibilities opened up after he was introduced to Zoom.
“I’m not technologically minded, I live more of an analogue life in some ways,” he said. “It just meant that suddenly the possibilities opened up. I could talk to people when it worked for them.”
Past episodes of “Art Matters” can be streamed on Spotify and Mixcloud.
Sam Davenport is a writer residing in Anchorage. She's a leo and a plant-person, and loves spending quality time with her dog, Aspen. She is a Real Housewives fan and has been called a Bravo historian.
