Ever since he was younger, Dan Attoe has been fascinated by the historical past, traditions and inventive intricacies of tattoo artwork, an curiosity that stems from his ardour for skateboarding and punk rock tradition.
Subsequently, it’s no shock that Attoe has joined third Coronary heart Tattoo in Washougal as a part-time licensed artist. He’s definitely not a newcomer to artwork; his work have been exhibited world wide for greater than a decade. However Attoe mentioned he views his transition into tattooing as “a pure step.”
“I all the time favored tattoos, and have all the time been influenced by them. My art work is influenced by them,” he mentioned. “My expertise with artwork positively helps (with tattooing). Lots of tattooing is having the ability to draw and assemble in house, (and picturing) the structure of a picture, so it helped me to have already got that background. There’s truly plenty of overlap between the tremendous artwork world and tattoo artwork world. However I’m studying that there’s rather a lot to this medium — folks’s pores and skin, the devices, the machine. Getting a really feel for these issues takes a while.”
Attoe and third Coronary heart Tattoo proprietor Ryan Boomhower first met in 2009, when Boomhower was working at Painless Ric’s tattoo store in downtown Camas.
“He got here to me to have a sketch of his become a tattoo. Not understanding Dan’s popularity as an artist, I requested if he needed me to attract my model of what he introduced me or to make use of his precisely the way in which it was introduced,” Boomhauer mentioned. “The latter was chosen, and we set the appointment for just a few days later. I already appreciated not having to alter up the artwork or do something extra to it, however I actually appreciated the artwork fashion that Dan had.”
“We continued knocking out piece after piece when Dan would really feel impressed to place one thing on his physique. Our one-on-one time become a strong friendship in a short time. It wasn’t till the third or fourth time we received collectively that I used to be alerted by a good friend to how fashionable and sought-after an artist he was within the trendy artwork world.”
Attoe’s earlier artwork expertise has helped him as a tattoo artist, in keeping with Boomhower.
“Dan is in a very neat place that not many tattoo artists get to be in once they begin out,” he mentioned. “(He’s had) large prior success in artwork varieties like oil and pencil, amongst plenty of different mediums, then transferred (his talents) to machine, needle and ink. I really feel that originally some locals, and those that are unaware of Dan’s prior works, might be pleasantly stunned at who has carried out their tattoo, not only for his talent with a tattoo machine however who Dan is within the artwork world outdoors of tattooing. ”
Artist receives worldwide publicity at younger age
Attoe was born in Bremerton, Washington, grew up in elements of Washington, Idaho, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and attended the College of Wisconsin-Madison, the place he studied psychology and artwork. He then acquired a grasp’s diploma in tremendous artwork diploma from the College of Iowa in Iowa Metropolis, Iowa.
Attoe’s work attracted the eye of Javier Peres, proprietor of Peres Tasks, a Berlin-based gallery that promotes modern artists to a world viewers, working undertaking areas and presenting exhibitions of latest artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Athens, Stockholm and Berlin.
“From its beginnings, (Peres Tasks) simply skyrocketed, and become a widely known gallery in only a few years,” Attoe mentioned. “I began to indicate everywhere in the world earlier than I used to be out of grad faculty. I used to be completely satisfied. I assumed it was nice as a result of I may make artwork all day and dwell wherever I needed, which was good.”
Attoe, who moved to Washougal in 2004, works from his house studio and spends time along with his spouse, Annice, and two younger kids, when he’s not at third Coronary heart Tattoo.
“I like how quiet it’s right here,” he mentioned of Washougal. “I like how pleasant the persons are typically. I like how stunning it’s. I like being near the Columbia River and Washougal River. Earlier than I had youngsters, I favored to kayak and hike, however now I take youngsters to the safer locations.”
For all of Attoe’s accomplishments and notoriety, “he’s simply Dan,” in keeping with Boomhower.
“He’s a good friend to all, and a person of nice stature with all who get even a second of his time,” he mentioned. “He likes to see the humor in the whole lot round him and create silver linings for all to see within the common on a regular basis issues that encompass us. He’s an incredible good friend, as true as they arrive. He’s an much more superb father to his kids and supportive partner to his spouse.
“When you’re a good friend of Dan’s or just a stranger observing, its straightforward to see his household comes first above all. To be frank, It’s not a lot the inventive issues I like about Dan — though there are various — however the on a regular basis man that Dan is to the world and folks round him, whether or not it’s a stranger or kindred. I’m really honored to name him one in every of my closest pals and to have him working with me.”
‘Attempting to make sense of the world’
Attoe’s work has been in quite a few group reveals in galleries and museums in the US and Europe. He labored with and was a part of the inspiration for a line of clothes by clothier Adam Kimmel in 2011. He’s additionally one of many founders of Paintallica, an artist collective that has introduced performative installations throughout the US.
“Attoe’s work depict pure wonders — waterfalls, seashores, mountains, rocky cliffs, outsized forests — populated by tiny figures spouting even tinier diaristic missives, painted in silver and culled from the artist’s stream of consciousness,” in keeping with westernexhibitions.com. “The miniature people disrupt the grandeur of nature with their small stature and utterances. His drawings share the identical issues however inverted — the phrases and disconnected photographs are bigger and infrequently cartoonish, creating small-scaled narrative vignettes.”
“He’s extremely proficient in lots of elements of artwork and artwork composition,” Boomhower mentioned. “His oil work has actually left me speechless and impressed so many occasions I can’t rely. I’m fascinated at his skill to take the typical on a regular basis thought and switch right into a much more thought-provoking thought. It’s like a layer cake on high of one other layer cake turned the other way up — a typical thought then matched up visually with one thing you by no means would have imagined. Nevertheless it is sensible.”
Attoe mentioned his artwork is “helpful,” and incorporates pure magnificence and humor.
“I believe it goes again to curiosity in psychology,” he mentioned. “I believe that each one artwork is psychologically helpful, however a few of it is usually sociologically helpful and traditionally and politically and culturally helpful as nicely, and I dip into all these issues. My artwork is my method of making an attempt to make sense of the world. I suppose I hope that different folks can get one thing from it, or make some sort of sense of it as nicely.”
“Different artists are extra politically and socially engaged than I’m, however in my very own work I put that stuff via a filter and it comes out in a fictional method,” he continued. “I evaluate my work to what Steven King does. In the identical ways in which his tales typically have darkish analogies to political or psychological (occasions), my work is comparable in that it’s hardly ever direct.”
Day-after-day, Attoe meditates for about 20 minutes, then sketches a drawing that he retains for himself to make use of as inspiration earlier than transferring on to greater initiatives.
“It’s a routine,” he mentioned. “The drawing comes from the mediation. Meditation is a means of shutting off my inside editor. I don’t have to fret about what to share with the world once I’m simply letting these concepts float via my head. In knowledgeable method, artwork is only a dialogue having with collectors and viewers. I simply really feel a necessity to maintain that dialogue recent, and (meditation) is a option to incorporate political issues occurring now ought to they arrive up, or a method of listening to the world to verify (these items) get filtered to make them helpful to folks now.”
