Dan Drage

PHD CANDIDATE

Hometown: Colorado, USA
Education: BA, Milligan College, Tennessee, USA
MLitt, ITIA, University of St Andrews, 2018

Thesis Topic
Dan’s interest as a practicing visual artist initially led him to ITIA after over a decade of living and working in Vietnam. From a desire to practice with his art what he’d learned in the ITIA MLitt, he became ITIA’s first artist-in-residence in 2018. Building off that experience, Dan has established a collaborative PhD together with the nearby Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD) in Dundee. The focus of this practice-led PhD in art-making and theology is an exploration of Sacred Space, Place and Time: Extra-material realities in and through the material. Working with both Prof. Trevor Hart at ITIA and Prof. Mary Modeen at DJCAD, Dan’s work is driven primarily by research through the making of art.

Key questions help shape Dan’s art, such as: What meaning might be revealed by the time-worn, daily human imprint on matter in particular places? How do elements of the material world become identified as sacred?  How do particular spaces open up human awareness of the sacred?

Other Information
Together with my wife and two daughters, I am a part of Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church here in St Andrews, where I make art for the liturgy and life of the community, and occasionally sing tenor in the choir. My current artistic practice—being inspired by a love of form, of line, of process, and of material—tends toward non-representational sculpture, though I would hasten to add my artistic output includes as well the making of a good cup of coffee and conversation.

Contact
[email protected]