D A N I E L M E N A T I A N

My artistic career was conjured early by the trials I faced throughout my life as an undiagnosed autistic person. Since the age of four, I’ve struggled immensely with anxiety, specifically around the concept of not understanding oneself. As a child, I was given very few answers regarding my perplexing behaviors, resulting in an imaginative outlet that knew no bounds. Ever since I could hold a marker, I drew endlessly, creating imaginative scenes filled with dynamic line structures and creatures equipped with souls. With drawing, I was finally in control of my world.

As I grew, I drew influence from biomorphic forms in nature, heavily illustrated artists' books, my Abuela, an Armenian-Cuban sculptor, Alexander Calder, and later artists from the Dada period, such as Jean Arp. Centered in past work and brought into the present day was my longing for limitless creative freedom. Through harnessing ambition, perplexity, intricacy, and silliness, I have continued employing unrestricted norms, becoming independent from rigid societal expectations since my early work.

Through a process of experimentation and analysis, I identified that there were no constraints to my ambitions. I grew to learn that if it couldn’t be done, I would figure out how.

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