The Bite Magazine - issue 16

Daniel Warnecke Artist Profile ‘We are all creators, inspired by life and the love of art” - Daniel Warnecke at UCA Rochester famous for its fashion courses and presentations at Graduate Fashion Week. In the early stages of his course, Warnecke was determined to be a successful fashion photogra- pher but discovered there were limitations and protocols that came with fashion photography. His goal is to be as free as possible in being able to express himself through his work. Warnecke is a prime example of what someone can achieve despite having some limitations in the way they see or do things in comparison to other people. In his third year at UCA, the emerging artist was diagnosed with severe dyslexia and dyspraxia. “Having that mixed in with my colour blindness now made a lot of sense as to why I worked in a different way to most of my peers throughout my academic career.” Despite having these conditions, he was determined not to let this stop him from achieving his goals and finished university with a First Class Honour’s Degree. He first inspired to become an artist when he visited Frieze London for the first time when he was 18. “The whole place had me in total awe seeing that people could create such amazing objects and images straight from their conscious- ness and bring them into a reality to be enjoyed by others. Looking at the price tags for the work was just as jaw-dropping and an incentive to believe you could make a decent living in the art world.” Warnecke says that paintings, sculptures and photographs are one of the same things to him. “I have painted on photographs, made sculptures from photographs and painted on sculptures. I am never set to one medium as the definitive start and end of a process. I have been making art on a serious level for the past seven years and have been making art now commercially for one year.” This is a far cry from his very first artistic piece which was a plank of wood painted in blue with hammered in nails and screws done in nursery school. “I’m sure you wouldn’t be allowed to do that anymore – thinking back it was pretty danger- ous and ended up with some black thumbnails.” So being such a fresh, up-and-coming artist, we won- dered where Warnecke gets ideas for his pieces. “I get my influences and inspirations mostly from deep meditation. I like to get spiritual and let the mind wander. My best ideas have come from drift- ing off and freeing the mind, and then BOOM, an idea will pop out of nowhere and I immediately get very excited. If the excitement is still there a few days later, I will act on it and put it into practice.” He also says he gets inspiration from sharing dis- cussions with other artists and hearing someone else get excited about a project or an idea really charges his creativity. Through his work, Warnecke tries to convey a meaning of surprise while at the same time pro- viding a concept of familiarity. “This is done by using concepts and processes, which you have to think twice about or take a closer look while at the same time there is something recognisable to the viewer.” In the near future, the artist would like to do a project abroad in South America or Africa which is something he is currently working on to achieve. “The opportunity to incorporate my artistic process in a foreign land for something meaningful and positive would be amazing. I’m not going to give too much away about what the pro- jects will involve, but watch this space for projects in faraway lands.” For now, the most enjoyable and rewarding moment in making a new piece of art for the artist bite artist profile