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Information:
Daniel’s boldly colored and richly textured paintings and mixed media pieces are populated with a recurring cast of bug-eyed, snaggletoothed characters including boxers, saints,cowboys and kings. These intensely expressive figures are often accompanied by snatches of overheard dialog ("you’re too high", "hold me as I fall apart", "draw mother****er"). He works with anything he can get his hands on; glitter paint, oil stick, dirt, crayon, metal, wood, cardboard, paper, and lots and lots of nail polish.
Daniel Belardinelli is a passionate man who battles an admitted addictive personality and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
As a lawyer, Daniel sits at the defense table. As an artist, he is on the witness stand. "In a sense, I live my life similar to an eye witness who comes into a court and provides testimony as to what he saw. Everything and everyone is in play. I’m very interested in getting it totally correct, and by drawing what I have seen or heard, I do." His artwork is his testimony to all that he witnesses on the streets and in the courthouses and jails of New York and New Jersey. He swears he tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
September 11, 2006, which falls right in the middle of this exhibition, is the fifth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. Daniel Belardinelli’s connection to 9-11 is deeper than most. Daniel had plans to be on flight 93 that day. He and his uncle, William Cashman, were going to hike together in Yosemite. Daniel's plans changed last minute. William Cashman died when flight 93 crashed into that field in Pennsylvania. Since that day, Daniel has regularly used his art to reflect on his feelings about the horrible events of September 11 and their lasting impact on the world. Daniel was one of 3 people featured in the A&E program "Nine Eleven Missed" (to see this online go to http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=155699).
Excerpted from Headfooters
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