Continuing with our interviews with the members of our community, this time we had the pleasure of talking with the Chilean artist Daniel Schachner, who told us about his sources of inspiration, the reasons for his artistic creations, both paintings and sculptures, their favorites authors, among other very interesting topics.

About Daniel, we can read on his website:

“My art is based on the exploration of the interrelation between the Male and the Female, predominantly the interest in the communication between the two, one that is affected by a globalized and increasingly impersonal world”.

We leave you with our guest Daniel Schachner.

PHANI: Daniel, can you tell me about your creative processes and how your works are developed?

Daniel Schachner: To start a creative process I have to be with pencil and paper, whether for a painting or a sculpture, I give form to the idea that is produced in that second on this paper, after having the shape I play with the colors, which in general I look for to be strong, and thus they develop until their final form using acrylics, watercolor, oil pastel, oil or any paint that comes to my hands, I have even used paints that come from vegetable waste, as well as fabrics that can be recycled. In sculpture, I only use recycled materials, be it waste from washing machines, kitchens, refrigerators and car parts.

PH: Tell me about your artistic career, at what point in your life did you decide to dedicate yourself to art, and what drives you to do so?

DS: For many years I worked and led a conventional life, at the beginning of 2000, I lost my sight for almost three years, when I began to see light again my doctor gave me crayons to differentiate colors, which began as a therapy, it became a necessity, I never stopped. I do not have formal studies, I am self-taught. Since I started exploring with color, I have been in a constant learning process.

PH: In your work I find a strong influence of symbolism and lyricism, even some cubism. Tell me about your main influences.

DS: All my life before my blindness was influenced in art by my father, a great collector and great art critic, friend of countless painters and sculptors from different parts of the world, I attended exhibitions, concerts and shared with great artist friends of my family from a very young age.

I have felt influenced by Miró, whom I consider the maximum exponent of simplicity and beauty, without despising anyone else.

PH: Daniel, one of the most recurring themes in your work, both pictorial and sculptural, is the male-female relationship. Can we delve deeper into this topic?

DS: My work is based on the communication of the human being, the interaction between the Male and the Female, I deeply believe in the interrelation between them and that is how I try to capture it in my work.

 PH: What are your main sources of inspiration?

DS: Human relationships, communication between us, the complex and the simple in the relationship between the Male and the Female, something fascinating in our world.

PH: Daniel, tell me about your beliefs, what you love, what you believe in, and what you fear.

DS: I believe in the human being, in love, in the family and above all things, I believe in God. What I fear the most is misunderstanding, intolerance, greed and above all, ignorance.

PH: What is art for you?

DS: Art is a set of elements where beauty, harmony, structure, come together, not always common sense, and where the creativity of the human being flourishes.

I have always had the concept of balance and composition. Painting gives me freedom, joy, space and the relief that allows me to externalize my thoughts and feelings.

PH: What readings have accompanied you throughout your life and your artistic career? Any work in particular, any author in particular?

DS: I have been a great reader during my life, I am especially attracted to reading about universal history and poetry, from Edgar Allan Poe to Pablo Neruda. Something that marked me as a child were two things: The Treasure of Youth, 21 volumes of the best stories from around the world, and a small book, with a few pages, called The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which I loved. Which taught me to be human and respect my peers.

PH: Daniel, how do you see the subject of crypto art? Also, tell me about your experience in that world of NFTs, about the crypto artist Daniel Schachner.

DS: Despite the fact that my contact with crypto art is very recent, approximately 2 years ago, I was lucky to have a very good teacher, Víctor Rivera, who made me navigate throughout this world, approaching NFTs teaching me the value of what it will mean in the short term to have an NFT image and its original, that this requires an artist with mastery of his palette and his canvas and not only of the computer.

PH: To date, what do you consider to be the most challenging work you have done in your career, and why?

DS: Despite the fact that I have had many challenges, in 2010, which was the Bicentennial of Chile, I exhibited with the most renowned sculptors of my country at the Museum of Fine Arts, a copper sculpture, it was the first time that I worked with that stuff.

Another unparalleled experience was in 2019, creating a 10-meter-high mural on a busy street in Santiago.

PH: Throughout your artistic career you have had a few exhibitions, collective and individual, what has been the most satisfying of all these achievements?

DS: Making an exhibition requires a lot of effort and dedication, there is a big difference in doing it alone or together. Collective exhibitions allow you to share with artists from different labels, shapes, colors, the pressure of the exhibition is shared. When you do an individual exhibition, the responsibility falls 100% on your shoulders, even if you have help and within all these experiences, which have been many, I had to do a solo one with more than 90 works between paintings and sculptures that covered a large part of my job.

PH: Daniel, how would you define a successful artist?

DS: Regarding this question that has made me think a lot, I would say that the best of all is when people approach you and tell you that your art excites them, makes them happy, that it gives them peace of mind and that they enjoy the forms and the colors, I suppose for an artist it is a maximum achievement.

PH: Every artist has, throughout his career, certain important moments that mark him significantly. In your case, what have been those moments that we could define as a before and after in your artistic career?

DS: I have participated in several Art contests, for me, it has been significant to be recognized and awarded for my work, both nationally and internationally. I cannot stop mentioning experiences like the one I had with a group of children who attended an exhibition of mine, shared an art class with me and then reproduced some of my works, these things are pure energy and inspiration.

For The AC it is a true honor to have artists of the stature of Daniel, as part of our community, we are very grateful to him, for allowing us to learn more about his creative world and his works, through his own words .

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Until the next post of The AC.