Meet Dana Harrison | Muralist, Sign Painter & Purveyor of Feelings

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dana Harrison and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dana, can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I have a penchant for letterforms, word play, and emotions. I love the idea of cementing the ephemerality of a fleeting emotion, that by painting my thoughts I am able to hold onto them forever. I tend to have a pretty poor memory, so how I feel is something I’ve always held onto. I can dredge up a specific feeling like nobody’s business. When my girlfriend and I got together I told her not to read into anything I ever drew or painted, because often I was calling on a memory of a feeling. I have a little arsenal of past emotions that I can call on at will. When I’m drawing or painting them it’s as though I’m experiencing it all over again. Perhaps I’m just a product of millennial culture, but I wear my heart on my sleeve. In a world of interconnectivity, we are all so disconnected from each other. I like to be painfully honest in order to feel my own humanity and allow for others to experience it with me. My affinity for the emotional rather than the tangible comes from my past. I spent the majority of my early twenties more or less entirely dependent on opiates, then heroin, then methadone. 21-25 is pretty blurry for me. Throughout that whole time I wrote down feelings, ideas, little bits and bobs, word blobs of what was happening. My journals always felt like the only thing keeping my tethered to the world. My road, though most of it is self-inflicted, has not been easy. Getting off heroin, and ultimately methadone, was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. If I weren’t so stubborn I’d still be stuck in the same cycle of dependence. Same goes for my career, if I hadn’t been so stubborn about wanting to make my art career happen I’d have given up a while ago. I basically just told myself that I couldn’t fail and so far it’s worked for me. So I guess I’m proud of just being here right now, of being alive and mentally present to create. I wouldn’t be here without my own willpower.

What’s the end goal, career-wise?
The end goal is acquiring desire. That may seem a little abstract, but all a self-indulgent artist really wants is to be desired, no? So much of the beginning of your art career is just getting people to notice you. After you’ve been noticed you to want to be desired—for art consultants to want your pieces on their projects, for businesses to want your work on the side of their building, for the public to want your work in their collection. Ideally I’d love to go big! Getting compensated for creating my own art on a large scale—billboards, ten story buildings, 360 degree murals. I want to share my feelings with the world.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My first stop whenever showing someone around is East Atlanta. I’ve lived in the neighborhood for a few years now and I just feel like EAV really gets me. Obviously we’re going to The Earl for a beer and a shot. Probably some tater tots too. I just feel at home there. Then maybe we go walk around Doll’s Head Trail for some gool ol’ found trash art. I love lowbrow, I love making something out of nothing. Plus I can say we went on a hike when really all we did was walk aimlessly amongst broken doll parts. If I were to actually go on a hike, I’d take them to Sweetwater Creek. It’s lovely there, especially in the fall. At some point we’d make it over to Carroll Street because it always feels so quaint and not-at-all Atlanta to me. Then that’d give us a chance to walk Wylie and then venture on over to Krog Tunnel, just because people not from Atlanta always want to see it. DeKalb Ave is just fun to drive up and down, the interchangeable lane, the murals, the graffiti, the drivers angry at people turning left, there’s always something to look at. I’d definitely hit up We Suki Suki because there’s never not something fun to be had there. The variety of food is incredible and there’s something comforting about being forced to sit next to strangers at their picnic tables. Something that I’ve missed very much throughout the pandemic is connecting with strangers. It’s easy to do that over good food. We’d need to go to Value Village because I love a good thrift. I think I can confidently say I’ve never walked out of VV empty handed. I’ve always loved that South Moreland shopping center, and now with all the recent murals and studios cropping up it’s even more fun—you can hit up Attic Closeout while you’re there. They have A+ deals! We’d also undoubtedly go to El Progreso for tacos. Well, I won’t be getting tacos, but I’d tell them they should. I’ve been vegetarian since elementary school so I’d get my usual—rice & beans with a side of tortillas and avocado to make my own. I feel like a year ago I wouldn’t have mentioned this spot, but it kind of feels like the secrets out about this place. They’re my fave and just down the road from me, so I go often. I’d love to take a day trip out to Alto and go to the School Bus Graveyard. It’s about an hour outside of the city and fun to walk around. Then we could stop by Jaemor Farms to get fresh produce. They’ve got all the usual stuff plus fun hot sauces and the most amazingly fresh pickles you will ever taste. You can also go and pick your own bouquet of flowers which is absolutely adorable even though I’ve never done it. When we’re not partaking in cheap beer I’d love to go to Dr. Bombay’s Underwater Tea Party. I have an affinity for tea (coffee tastes like dirt—there, I said it!) and that place always makes me feel like I’ve stepped into another world. Honestly this is a tentative list, I’m not even sure what I do anymore. Throughout this pandemic I’ve turned inward and it’s hard to recall all the activities I used to participate in.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
C4 Atlanta! I took their business planning course, Ignite, last summer and it changed everything. They are a non-profit that provides artists with the tools and knowledge to further their art career. The courses are specifically created with artists in mind, so all that pesky (and frankly, very boring) business stuff is laid out in a way that right-brained people can grasp. I met amazing people during Ignite that have encouraged my personal and career growth to this day and I am forever grateful for the organization.

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