What is your definition of art?

There ARE definitive criteria. They are amorphous and they shift across history and culture. But I think its fun to speculate on the possible criterion of the present moment. Please refer to The Art Instinct by Dennis Dutton. In The Chapter, "What Is Art?," Dutton produces an inventory of 12 criterion for the (a?) definition of art. That litany is surprisingly cogent; it is difficult to think of anything to add, or, conversely, to eliminate. I would have to concur with Dutton, call me old-fashioned!

What medium do you use?

Graphite pencils and more graphite pencils, Erasers of many varieties, paper towels, and X-acto blades. Did I mention graphite pencils?

How would you describe your artwork?

The drawings I am currently making are strategies of implicating the viewer into a theatre of looking. For example, I am exploring the interstice between portraiture and narrative.

Who are your favorite artists?

There are too many! Current top 5 (In No particular order): 15th Century French Provencal School, Brett Reichman, Marc Brandenburg, Adam Helms, Warhol (American Disaster Series).

How do you title work?

What does Lacan say? Language precedes the subject? Often, it is the title that pre-figures the work: language is an impetus for figuration. I am always writing in the studio. Texts from books, songs, and lived dialog are indexical of an image.

What are some challenges you constantly face in your practice?

I draw the figure. Anatomical proportions always plague me. I am always revising. The process seems to reflect the work itself, because the ideas too are always in flux. I think there is a way to articulate mastering the figure as a double of the desire drive. It is circular, its sole aim is to reproduce itself as a drive, not the attainment of it's object. So the aim of the drawing is always drawing, and the illusion of the object (figuration) is profound.

Daniel Samaniego (b. 1984) is an artist dedicated to the practice of drawing. His super-real, labor-intensive works on paper are an investigation of mediated gay male identity. He earned his B.F.A. from The University of Nevada Las Vegas in 2007. He was awarded a Fellowship at San Francisco Art Institute’s Painting program where he is currently pursuing his M.F.A.