My work displays through visual repetition, the obsessive relationship between the art making process and final products. Every day I battle with the always asked question....“What's Next?”

In my career, my creativity, my relationships, my fertility, and money, this questions is a never ending spiral. I hear it from myself, supporters, and even strangers. This constant, most times innocent inquiry triggers my manic stages of working, which you see in the repetition of prints. Personal stress of the future is something we all deal with, cutting the cloth wrong because we didn't measure twice and managing the fear that comes with that. Making promises to ourselves we know we can't keep, and drawing the card we didn't want to. My paintings and prints show metaphors for these thoughts and fears.

It's meant to overtake the vertical walls, turning my atypical tendencies into a humorous, almost adorable mental mess; which represents my psyche, conjuring my problems and fears into painted surfaces.

Sometimes we think we know what the future holds....but do we truly ever know?

BOOK TODAY for a group or individual consultation.

An Alternative way to be an Artistic Leader and Educator

Dana Sikkila's Artist and Educator Consultations are educational and entertaining lectures and workshops. Over the course of seven years Sikkila has created, developed, and sustained a hands-on creative community throughout areas of southern Minnesota, connecting youth, universities, and community members into the arts to work together. With her hands-on approach to arts administration, Sikkila has created creative networks that branch over many fields, making the arts accessible to all. This balance of working with artists, organizations, businesses, and government has caught the eyes of many, but Sikkila still keeps to her grassroots style of administration, giving priority to the artists. These lectures tell about projects and programming she has developed and organized, examples include biking across Minnesota to connect artists, leading puppet making marches, and building mentor programs in which youth connect directly to artists. Through her own art space, the 410 Project, which is volunteer-managed, she proves that an artist-run space can sustain itself alongside million dollar organizations and one person can truly make one big wave.
These workshops give you a great insight into professional practices of working in the creative fields as well hearing Sikkila's viewpoints of how art, artists, and communities can create together and how sometimes we all have to get dirty for the greater good of our communities.

Dana Sikkila Workshops:
-Creative Theory Development within Creative Educational Research
-What Comes After Art School
-Artist Statement and Elevator Speech Writing
-Funding for Artists
-Grant Writing
-Promoting Yourself and Your Work
-Elements and Principals of Art
-How to Write and Critique Art
-Artist Resume Writing
-Artist Headshots
-Creative Placemaking In Your Community