Daniel H. is not the only artist who sells The Contributor, but he is among the most prolific. Even before he sold the paper, he was a member of Daybreak Arts’ (then called Poverty and the Arts) collective of creatives.
“I’ve changed the directions of my art. I’ve gone from doing straight painting of landscapes and stuff to portraits and abstract art, and I’ve also done 3D art. I’ve exhibited in London, here two times in the Frist Art Museum, I’ve done different coffee shops and different places, including Downtown Presbyterian,” said Daniel. “It’s been a long ride … we’ve gotten to know a lot of different people by doing the art.”
Daniel works primarily with acrylics and graphite, but has dabbled in other media as well. It’s all available to view in-person at Daybreak by appointment, or browse and purchase on their website. From abstract works to vivid landscapes, each of Daniel’s works tells a story – but he’s got a few of his own, too.
His art career goes back to his time on the streets; in addition to making art for its own sake, he’d make portraits and sketches at the request of people he’d meet while outside.
“I was doing private sales on the street, someone would walk up to me and say, ‘Can I commission you to do such and such,’ and I’d say, ‘Yeah.’ [But that was] drawing, the painting started when I came to Tennessee,” he said. “A woman at the Walmart actually looked at me and asked if I was gonna do painting, she told me to do acrylic because oil is unforgiving and takes too long. So I said, okay, I’ll start with this.”
Painting remains one of Daniel’s specialties today. But while selling his works and exhibiting them with Daybreak has been a great way to gain exposure and a bit of income, looking back, the most valuable part of sharing his artwork has been the connections he’s made.
“The benefit of what we do is that it helps other people, and that’s what the purpose of doing this is. It’s not the money, it’s more the people. The people I get to meet, the people I get to experience the joy of once they get the painting.”
Particularly treasured are the connections he’s made with other artists at Daybreak. Two other long-standing artists in the collective, Edwin Lockridge and A.M. HASSAN, have known Daniel for a long time.
“I have been truly blessed and honored art-wise, and just inspired by these amazing artists. It’s just an honor to be a part of it,” Edwin said. Edwin has exhibited in the Lane Motor Museum and other galleries, and hopes to further develop his body of work in a collaboration with Daniel.
Together, they have an ambition to sell their art and use the cash they receive to fund low-barrier housing and similar initiatives in Nashville. Daniel calls the idea Morning Coffee, and he hopes to grow it into a full-on business. A.M. HASSAN said lived experience is invaluable when approaching the issue of homelessness; and like all artists at Daybreak, they know what it’s like to fall on hard times.
“Everybody, all humans, deserve a place of shelter, and you’ve got to have somewhere to be. I understand because I was homeless. We were working homeless, me and my husband both,” A.M. HASSAN said. “It was quite an experience to be working a full-time job and not have a place to live. A lot of these people in Nashville, it’s just like that. They have jobs but they don’t have a place to stay. They’re living in their car or a motel. I know one lady, she ends up paying one thousand dollars a week to stay in a motel just to keep a roof over her head.”
Daniel’s ambitions are spurred on by the continued plight of the unhoused; the resources exist to treat the issue, but they’re rarely applied directly.
“Your experiences change a little bit from where you go, but the homelessness doesn’t. You continually keep hearing people say, ‘Why can’t they fix this?’ But the answer is because they don’t want to,” he said. “That’s what all of this is trying to do. Just create a better place for the next generation, the next group of people to come along. The only way we can do this is by paying into it; unfortunately, money is the only thing that resolves the issue. We have to do something to stop it now.”
In the meantime, Daniel will continue to manifest his creativity; whatever purpose the art serves, its foremost power will always be in how it brings people together.
“People take the things that we do personally, because it connects with them. They know that they’re going to have something to be happy about when they look at it each day, remembering the people that were a part of it.”