My artwork is both abstract and figurative.
I create imaginary landscapes born from faded memories of time, place and emotional energy. Through an abstracted impressionistic style, I strive to create a sense of the familiar in each piece, allowing the viewers’ memories to merge with my own. My hope is that multiple narratives emerge as each person finds unique personal meaning through the many layers of color, line, texture and mark making.
I find great joy in mark making, bold color, multiple layers and varied textures. I use a variety of media in my work relying heavily on oil and cold wax, but also, pastel, ink, acrylics and gouache. I work almost exclusively “Alla Prima” to capture the energy of the moment. If I don’t like the results, I prefer to do another painting based on lessons learned in the first.
I also maintain a daily painting practice. Typically painting petite floral bouquets or small objects of daily life in acrylics, in one 40-60 minute session. These small paintings are intended to be “purposely playful”—exploring color, form, composition, mark making and mood. They also serve as warm-ups for the day’s work and keep my painting skills fluid and fresh. I have been doing this for over three years and have several hundred dailies.
Resumé
History, Related Experience, and Education
Professor, 1984-2017, Department Chair, 2009–2017, Emerita 2018, Cornell University, Human Centered Design. During my tenure as Chair we completely revised a 25 year old curriculum to reflect a new cross-disciplinary approach to design education merging design arts with technology, engineering and social change issues.
Sheila Danko Design. 1983-1990. Freelance designer for such leading clients at Herman Miller, Corning Medical and Dansk.
Masters, Industrial Design, Rhode Island School of Design
BS, University of Michigan, College of Architecture.
Studies in commercial art, College for Creative Studies, Detroit.
My design training and teaching taught me that good design is about human experience, engagement, and memory as much as it is about form, proportion and materiality. I try to embody these lessons into my artwork.
Artistic Experience
While my design arts background informs my painting through the fundamentals, I fully recognize it was not fine arts training. While I did study fine art (acrylics and pastels) in my youth (Thanks Mom!) and continued to seek out art classes in college and post college, (ceramics, watercolor, figure drawing, illustration), since my retirement I have been engaging in a deep dive into artistic training through in-person studio and online coursework. I have taken well over a dozen different courses (replete with homework and crits) from instructors all over the country, Canada and England. The coursework ranged from fundamentals of composition, color drawing and painting to learning new media such as cold wax technique, gouache, oils and pastels. I also studied plein air painting and good studio work/practice techniques, portraiture, painting interiors, moving from reality to abstraction just to name a few.
Artistic Achievements
My artistic deep dive. I do believe that my deep dive into such varied coursework is an achievement of which to be proud. It took not only time and money, but it often pushed me out of my comfort zone helping me to:
- Shift from an analytic mindset to a more playful, “let the piece emerge” mindset. analyzing the problem and setting priorities.
- Multiple media explorations have opened my eyes to a broader range of goals and possibilities in my work.
- Understand that artistic temperament needs to be matched to the media to allow ones authentic self to emerge.
- Focus on letting go, letting the painting take you away from the reality and your preconceptions.
My Daily Painting Practice. I have been doing daily paintings for over three years now and have no intention of stopping. I have several hundred paintings and can easily see/feel the benefits both technically and emotionally. Thank you Lisa Daria Kennedy!
SOAG 2025 Winter Open Call. Juried. Accepted “Chaos at Twilight” oil and cold wax
SOAG 2026 Invitational. Submitted. Not accepted
North River Arts Society 2026 Festival of the Arts National Juried Exhibit. Submission deadline April 13. I am a Member and intend to submit both to the juried show and to the tent sale.
FASO/Fine Arts Studio OnLine. Sheila Danko Fine Arts, personal website already under construction. Expected activation, March 30
Daily PaintWorks Website. Sheila Danko, under construction. Expected activation April 30.
In closing
There are times to analyze and times to feel.
I remember clearly the day I walked into the Dean’s office to tell him why I would be stepping down as chair after nine years—and more importantly—why I would be leaving my tenured position at Cornell after 33 amazing years. He knew I loved teaching and leading the department. So, after the initial shock, he asked “Why? What do you want to do instead? Without hesitation I answered, “Get my hands dirty.” His puzzled look still makes me laugh.
After years of trying desperately to balance my analytic work life with my inner need for artistic/studio exploration, it was time to recenter my life on feeling and making versus analytics and computers. So, I retired early and got to work getting my hands dirty again. Every wonderful day.
Contact
- sheila.danko@cornell.edu
- 607/592-3136
