Daniel Mack (b.1947) is an American artist, writer and teacher working with natural and found objects, in the traditions of Alchemy and Surrealism. He has been greatly influenced by the work of Carl Jung and James Hillman.
He is currently exploring the consequences of Ordering and Disordering, Variation and Violation. For 20 years, Mack has been working on the Anima series, collections of carved figures, stones, and assemblage to honor the emerging, changing qualities of human life. They are crones, elders, caretakers, hermits, misfits, and shamans. They start from driftwood bark collected from the Hudson River and take on form, feature, color, and bits of nature and culture. When put together in twos, threes, and fours, they tell stories about inner lives, families, and friends; of fierce interplay, of relentless adaptation, of rust and shadow. Earlier in his career as a rustic furniture maker (1983-2015) , the story was about the generosity of the earth, its abundance, beauty and availability. In these 35 years with earth and trees, the ode has tempered. It is now more dirge-like, about rhythms and patience, about tidal orders and disorders.
His current interests are in the powers of:
- casual, indistinct, mundane materials;
- “opposites” as really deep pairings;
- order and disorder in the same object;
- when and how a seeming Variation gets experienced as a Violation.
He’s come to see small, illogical objects as guides or doorknobs to the realm of Psyche.
His Muse is Hermes, The Trickster, “The One who Shakes the Snow globe.”
He lives in the Hudson Valley of New York and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington.
In the Fall, he is offering: Casual Alchemy: making friends with Psyche, a 6-week Zoom playdate with the Library, starting Sunday, Sept.14, 2025. Details here, and at www.danielmack.com
A few of the pieces below are available for purchase. Please reach out to the artist directly with interest or questions at rustic@warwick.net.
