Digital Paintings - Digital paintings start out life as a photograph, taken by Dani. Using Photoshop, Painter and a Waekon digital tablet she repaints the photograph in the computer. This gives her the freedom to experiment with different techniques and "brushes".  Usually several attempts at "Painting" are made before a techniques hits her as the right one for the painting.

Gourd Bowls and Pine Needle Baskets - Dani started Pine Needle weaving when she first moved to Green Valley Lake which was during the bark beetle epidemic.  Due to the large amount of dying trees, pine needles were in abundance.  Her first two baskets were made with these needles, but then she discovered that harvesting and drying the needles turned the needles into a lovely mint green rather than brown.  Dani's love for the Native American culture and look is her inspiration for the beads and leather that adorn some of the baskets. 


Contact - dani@etoolcart.com

Artist Biography

Creativity it in Dani's blood. Her whole life has been focused on what she can create, whether it is on the computer, evidenced in her digital paintings and web design's or more recently revolving around creating beautiful baskets from Gourds and Pine needles.

Dani has sketched and painted for decades, working in many different mediums: watercolors, acrylics, charcoal. She even did custom airbrushing on motorcycles. The marriage of photography and the digital age opened up a whole new artistic world for her. Her computer opened up the world of Web Design. When she moved to the San Bernardino Mountains one of the first things she noticed was the abundance of long, beautiful pine needles. After a little bit of research on the internet she discovered pine needle basket weaving. It was only a natural progression to move to Gourd painting and carving and using pine needle weaving to enhance the rims of the gourd vessels she was making.

One wonders how she ever finds time to help run the business she and her husband Ben started several years ago. It’s an internet automotive specialty business called Automotive Specialty Tools, Inc. They currently have 3 on-line stores and ship tools all over the world. For a while they ran it out of their home, but it became so successful they moved into an office and have two full time employees. Dani does all the web design work which she is very good at. Because they were able to hire help Dani has had some extra time to devote to her artwork as well as her web design business.

Along with her art Dani love to play fiddle and loves to sing. She picks up on harmonies very quickly—something she learned singing in church choirs for many years.

She’s an avid hiker and always takes her camera along shooting butterflies, flowers, rocks, logs, everything. "Seeing what you don’t normally see" is the inspiration that she takes into the field with her as she looks for just the right photograph to create her digital paintings. "I love to move in close and I am thrilled at the little things I find later when I look at the final photo, something I never noticed out in the field, a little surprise. Then when I get it into my computer, it is all mine to transform and embellish as I see fit." You, too, will be absolutely delighted with Dani’s amazing artwork.