I never learned to treat art like something fragile or precious. It’s a thing you can carry, a thing you can leave behind. You can own it, but it exists because someone made it with their hands. I grew up inside that kind of making. Canvases leaning against walls, waiting. Art that doubles as a chair or table. Leaves and flowers and animals blooming across the house on surfaces and walls from my mother’s hands.

What matters isn’t the object. It’s the person behind it—their story, their days, the quiet way life moves through them and into the work. The passing of something lived into something made is the most precious thing.

Biography

Gina Danesi is a lifelong artist and high school art teacher at an independent boarding school in Northwestern New Jersey. She teaches all levels of painting, drawing, printmaking, experimental art, and art history. She has taught and worked in colleges, corporations, and art galleries. Gina has a strong passion for public service and public policy and has worked in political communications.

Education

Fine Arts and Art History (BA), The George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Post Grad Work

Guest Resident (painting & drawing), Peters Valley School of Craft

Montclair Art Museum (drawing & sculpture)

Peters Valley School of Craft (printmaking)

Worcester Art Museum (drawing & painting)

The Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, VA (drawing & painting)

Exhibits

Romano Gallery, Blair Academy, Blairstown, NJ

Peters Valley School of Craft

G.J Cloninger & Co., Morristown, NJ