Beauty in the Process
Technology and Art Create Big Ideas
Words by Jinky Romero Photos by Eric Morales
Art doesn’t always need to be madness or chaos. East Austin sculptor Dana Younger talks about the process and technique in his creative journey.
Younger, who first discovered his love for the arts through theater, has been creating sculptures for almost 20 years now. As a partner at local creative design and fabrication firm, Blue Genie Art Industries, he and the team are responsible for a number of stand-out pieces around the city. Younger’s love for process and innovation has led him down several interesting paths in his journey as an artist, digital fabrication being one of them.
At the very heart of Younger’s technique are technology and creativity. He first sculpts his piece in clay and then laser scans it, creating a 3D mesh. Then, digitally, he utilizes various computer software to manipulate each piece of art. He then prints it back out of the computer through a CNC machine: a device he actually brought to Blue Genie in the early 2000s, a time when it was a lot less accessible. The machine is the opposite of a 3D printer, wherein the 3D printer is an additive process, Younger’s process is a reductive one.
“I love a puzzle, which is why I like the digital fabrication. Everything is a puzzle, and everything is a process,” he explains.
The only exception for this process-oriented artist is concepting ideas, which are always central to any piece of work he produces. He describes his conceptualization journey as the only thing that is non-linear about his creative process. Having created pieces and exhibitions focused on nature, gender, the Western genre – to name a few – Younger’s concepts cannot be pinned down on a single thought, but they are always heavily grounded on meaning.
Younger complements these concepts and commentary by putting a lot of weight on accessibility. He recognizes that relatability and relevance are key to getting his audience to take a step back and try to truly look at the piece and what it has to say, which is why he gives his work as many access points as possible.
“I think that when the audience can access something by seeing a reflection of themselves or an emotion they understand, they can more readily accept the concept. It’s difficult to know what a piece is saying, but if it reminds you of something, you sit there, and you realize ‘Oh, it’s telling me something!’” he shares.
These access points manifest in different ways and forms in his sculptures, such as size and beauty, but his most preferred way is relating through the human figure, precisely because it’s a direct representation of ourselves. As someone who thrives on solving puzzles though, the figure is something he enjoys continuing to understand. Figuration challenges him, and he admits figuring out how to represent the human figure accurately has kept him engaged for years.
Younger continues to innovate and evolve this style, with his newest direction exploring the intersection of figuration and technology. This new direction presents a broad range of possibilities for Younger. Distortion and anamorphic art are at the forefront of this new venture, with pieces exploring how digital media distorts our presentation of self.
Younger makes all this magic happen in his Cherrywood studio. Proud to call East Austin home, he shares that the community itself is a driving force in his work.
“East Austin is about making – whether it’s music, art, culture,” he candidly explains. “There’s a concentration of people who are just full of energy, doing all kinds of amazing things to make our world more interesting and better – it’s hard not to get inspired by that.”
