Exhibition Catalogue Statements – 1983/1989
excerpt:
...the moods of human emotion elicit a response from me which takes the form of caricature. l try to capture the essential elements of expression to convey the familiar feelings of human experience. Even in the darkest moments of our lives there is always a perspective of objectivity which allows for a humorous point of view. There is always an absurdity to seriousness, a grotesque side to humor, a beauty to bewilderment. This the paradox of the human face, for while it reveals an individual's emotions, we interpret expression through our own emotion. A true beauty of life.
...l look at faces and bodies as they express feelings. I like the way gesture and facial expression convey meaning through familiar experience on the part of the viewer. Nature, especially people, gives me constant inspiration as I try to depict quirks, idiosyncrasies, emotions, moods, and attitudes which are universal.
...animal expressions about people, such as "Hog", come from my attempts to put a cliché into form, to make the absurdity of the Words even more drastic by exaggeration of the image which is called to mind when using these phrases. "Sick as a Dog", "Odd Duck", "Jackass", or "Hog", are all words that many people use without really thinking about the implication of the comparison. While the image may be grotesque, | have continued to make the pieces with the same attitude toward material quality and perfection that l want to achieve in all of my work.
—Dan Dailey
