About
Me.
"I create images loosely referred to as paintings."
Award-winning international artist & filmmaker Daniel Kathalynas was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania on December 16, 1971. Daniel was the only son of Gerald Kathalynas and Dorothy Josephite.
He took to the fine arts and music at a young age.
Daniel received outstanding art awards since he was a child in juried scholastic exhibits in Scranton. Taking accelerated college art classes, while still in high school, Daniel began to focus on art as a way of life.
While in Spanish Class at West Scranton High School, Daniel recollects, “I set my eyes on something strange, horrible, moving, and beautiful. Replicated in a Spanish textbook there was an image that leapt from the page. Picasso’s Guernica. The overall composition, nuances of value, the action, and shape-making stunned me and forced me to see beyond the representation of war and hope. My teacher required a paper about the country’s identity; I instead wrote a dissertation about the painting and called it ‘La Guernica’. This is my first recollection of ‘seeing’ and not just viewing or discerning objects.”
Kathalynas studied under Mark Webber, Karl O. Neuroth, and Ward Roe at Keystone College for Fine Art in 1990-1992. Upon receiving his Associate’s Degree in Fine Art, Keystone College requested two works that have become part of the school’s permanent collection.
Moving to New York City in 1992, Daniel began to dive into the study of music. He studied Classical Guitar Performance at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in Brooklyn College. Garnering some local attention while performing solo on the acoustic guitar at local coffee shops in Brooklyn, he decided to take his musical creation further. Forming eclectic rock bands such as Bovine Freemartin, Indecisive, and Cool Wood Package, Daniel began performing as vocalist, guitarist, and chief songwriter on stages throughout New York City. He began working at Music Television (MTV Networks in Times Square) and performed at Brooklyn College several times. Music was always a creative outlet and another form in the use of tone, composition, and color.
Never settling for only one medium of artistic expression, Daniel joined and exhibited his visual work in New York City with the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition (BWAC) and Bay Ridge Festival of the Arts. Also, taking up private study in photography and poetry, Daniel has traveled many paths of expression and chooses to reveal the gift of creativity in many mediums.
Moving to Virginia Beach, Virginia in 2007, Daniel worked at Right Angle Media where he filmed music videos, live performances, and sport events. Kathalynas formed a Virginia Beach-based band called BLOW in 2009. BLOW brought Kathalynas to many stages in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Hampton, and the Richmond Raceway.
Daniel started working at the Norfolk Botanical Garden as a tour guide in 2011. Embracing the beauty of the 175 acre garden, his passion for expression and personal connection of spirituality coalesced with his art making. In 2013, he became the Resident Artist and Public Programs Coordinator at Norfolk Botanical Garden. Living on the property and working in his studio on the premises gave him the opportunity to gain a keen observation of the garden and its wildlife. In February of 2012, Kathalynas displayed his artwork at the National Art Center in Tokyo and at the US Embassy in Rome in May 2016.
Kathalynas lead Acrylic Painting Workshops and a Meditation class at Norfolk Botanical Garden called “The Inner Journey”. Meditation helps him define his artwork as the experience of a corporal being encountering a natural spirituality. You can find his early videos, which he calls “Experiences”,
on the Daniel Kathalynas YouTube Channel.
Kathalynas exhibited at the US Embassy in Rome, and the National Art Center in Tokyo, as well as New York City, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and throughout the Hampton Roads area. He is also a former Artist-In-Residence of the Hermitage Museum and Norfolk Botanical Garden in Norfolk, Virginia.
Currently, Kathalynas is travelling across the country and filming short videos called “THE ROAMING ARTIST – American Odyssey” where he discusses his inspirational process, the beauty of national landmarks, local culture, and live painting. Today, Daniel calls Albuquerque, New Mexico his home.
