Over the past five years, it has been my utmost pleasure and privilege to have participated so closely with Rebecca, the Smart School faculty, and all of you who have taken classes, gotten involved in the community Discord, and shared your passion and care for this industry and craft!

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I will fondly remember ...​

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• Donato chucking his phone out of the studio because nothing was more important than teaching,

• Scott's seemingly crazy, scribbly lasso tool applications that would blow everyone’s mind once a gradient was thrown in,

• Greg's horse butt accuracy corrections that would transform them into the most beautiful parts of the piece,

• Cynthia's genius gelatinous cube demo using an olive oil bottle and the creation of Herbert,

• Dan's very very very consistent timing, consistently ending classes right on time,

• Winona single-handedly spawning an entire generation of sexy vampire paintings,

• Martin's weekly stories of animals in need of some love joining his family (Trippy!),

• Sam's archival version of Photoshop that proves with skill, even stone-age tools can produce the highest-caliber art,

• Jill's short (very non-panicked) break to fish her cat out of the neighbor's porch after they'd Rambo'ed their way out a screen door,

• Eric's excitement when his video background became the captain's bridge of the USS Enterprise,

 

And all of the ridiculously excellent (and excellently ridiculous) moments that this program has enabled me (and many of you) to experience!

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This decision to carve out more time to focus on my own art path was extremely difficult because – quite frankly – I’m going to miss you all and being present to help out.​ ❤️
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I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet so many of you as artists and as thinkers and - most importantly - as people, and it has always been a joy throughout that process. I couldn’t be more honored or grateful for the time we’ve all shared, in laughter and in tears.

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Especially in this era of relative uncertainty and unease - I derive a lot of comfort from knowing that this community holds strong for one another, through hardships and victories, celebrating bounty and weathering drought, with great heart and deeply absurdist humor. Keep those brushes dancing and the spirits flowing, and I know that we'll all keep this boat rocking until even the sun refuses to wake up and greet us.

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Though I may not be assisting with classes anymore, you will most certainly find me perusing Discord channels, at your nearest and dearest conventions, and probably keyed into your speed dial for random tech and art questions. A HUGE thank you to Rebecca for this opportunity and her gracious support and to all of you for making my time with Smart School so memorable - I will cherish it greatly, and look forward to laughing about that one time in class while we're clinking glasses at IX next year. ​

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And lastly, to all of the SAS students, continuing and past, I just want to say: you are right where you need to be on your own artistic journey. You are enough. If you ever forget that, I will always be happy to remind you - you have my email.​ ;)

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With Love,

Daneen