Connection Is The Solution: The Art Of Dan Eldon
Presented by the LA Art Show in collaboration with Creative Visions Foundation
Presented by the LA Art Show in collaboration with Creative Visions Foundation
In a time of immense separation and isolation, artists have a crucial role – to connect. Dan Eldon was a great connector. Artist, adventurer, journalist and activist – Eldon used his remarkable creativity as a power for good, a glue to bind a disjointed world. Through the transcendent nature of Eldon’s work, titled “Connection Is The Solution: The Art of Dan Eldon,” we will explore the need to join together from one of our time’s great creative activists.
Eldon’s art has inspired countless and is in many prestigious private collections, including those of Diana Rockefeller, Bruce Weber, Madonna, Julia Roberts, Christiane Amanpour, Rodie O’Donnell, among many others.
Eldon’s personal story as a photojournalist and activist, working to tell stories of war and famine, has ignited countless people to action since his death in Somalia in 1993. This tragedy made headlines around the world – Eldon was 22 years old. During his short life, Eldon created 17 journals filled with vibrant collages of his adventures and thoughts. Originally inspired by his friendship with Peter Beard, and later his love for Basquiat and Rauschenberg, Eldon’s journals are filled with the musings of a creative genius.
In the pages that fill the bulging journals, Eldon reveals imagistic insight into his extraordinary perspective on the world. They include snapshots of his life growing up in Kenya, explosive images taken in war-torn Somalia, and detailed drawings of the world around him. They are a blend of photographic reality with transient ephemera of the everyday – vivid blueprints of Eldon’s imagination.
In 1998 Dan’s mother Kathy Eldon and sister Amy Eldon Turteltaub founded Creative Visions, a publicly supported 501(c) 3 organization aimed at helping others like Dan use media and the arts to create meaningful change in the world. Over the years, Creative Visions has moved from Kathy’s kitchen table to its headquarters at the Dan Eldon Center for Creative Activism in Malibu, CA. The organization has incubated more than 360 creative activist projects in over 35 countries.
Eldon’s art has inspired countless and is in many prestigious private collections, including those of Diana Rockefeller, Bruce Weber, Madonna, Julia Roberts, Christiane Amanpour, Rodie O’Donnell, among many others.
Eldon’s personal story as a photojournalist and activist, working to tell stories of war and famine, has ignited countless people to action since his death in Somalia in 1993. This tragedy made headlines around the world – Eldon was 22 years old. During his short life, Eldon created 17 journals filled with vibrant collages of his adventures and thoughts. Originally inspired by his friendship with Peter Beard, and later his love for Basquiat and Rauschenberg, Eldon’s journals are filled with the musings of a creative genius.
In the pages that fill the bulging journals, Eldon reveals imagistic insight into his extraordinary perspective on the world. They include snapshots of his life growing up in Kenya, explosive images taken in war-torn Somalia, and detailed drawings of the world around him. They are a blend of photographic reality with transient ephemera of the everyday – vivid blueprints of Eldon’s imagination.
In 1998 Dan’s mother Kathy Eldon and sister Amy Eldon Turteltaub founded Creative Visions, a publicly supported 501(c) 3 organization aimed at helping others like Dan use media and the arts to create meaningful change in the world. Over the years, Creative Visions has moved from Kathy’s kitchen table to its headquarters at the Dan Eldon Center for Creative Activism in Malibu, CA. The organization has incubated more than 360 creative activist projects in over 35 countries.
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