Dan came to be an artist after contracting dengue fever (break-bone fever) and spinal meningitis while serving as the director of an Intercultural Training and Retreat Center in Santiago Tuxla, Mexico.
During his recuperation, Dan began to compulsively create multimedia collages, sculptures, and masks from found objects. He also began to paint, capturing the images flowing through him in a unique three-dimensional style.
Viewers of his paintings, sculptures and masks began describing it as visionary art, outsider art, self-taught art or shamanic art. Dan understood that these acts of creation were healing and re-creating him. He has taken this realization and made it the focus of his art; trauma can awaken creativity and, through creativity,
