Figurative Works
Over the last three decades, Dai has painted, drawn, and sculpted thousands of human forms, both realistic and fanciful. In their portraiture, Dai overlays astute understanding of the human form with deep appreciation of the human soul. Through their figurative works, Dai captures what it means to be a human, loved by and attuned to this world.
Sleeping Ute at Sunset
2024
Just north of where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet, there is a place called Bug Point. Very few people spend time there these days, but the land is covered in pottery shards and worked stones, that all tell a tale of a time passed.
When I find myself on that land, especially in winter when the light is dim, there is a quiet that comes into me and an aliveness that I feel all around. When I am there, it's as if the land is whispering, "welcome, we've missed you." When I am there, I exhale.
Come Sit By My Fire
2024
This piece was created for Turquoise Raven Gallery in Cortez, CO which held an exhibit titled Threads in our Tapestry for Pride Month 2024. In rural Colorado, it can take a lot of courage for a business to choose to celebrate and honor the queerness. Much gratitude goes out to Mary Fuller for her bravery.
A bit about this piece:
There are so many parts of ourselves that we have learn to shun, to banish, to hide away. The path of healing is a path of wholing. Come Sit By My Fire encourages us all to invite those parts of ourselves that have been hidden back into the light and back into the warmth. It invites us to meet all parts of ourselves again, this time with love.
When Summer Met Autumn
2024
Based on a poem by Cara Siler:
Was there ever a night so soft and sweet
As when summer and autumn here did meet
They scampered and swayed upon the breeze
And shook the fruit down from the trees
They tumbled and danced among the grass
To celebrate the seasons pass
They frolic and skip all through the farms
And summer falls in autumns arms
In colored leaves she’s laid to bed as autumn’s lips rest on her head
Goodnight sweet summer Goodnight she sings
I’ll see you next year after winter springs
Thank you Cara for sharing your beautiful words with me and allowing me to be so inspired by them.
To Be Human Is To Be Held By The World
2024
We'll Be Here
2024
Mama Mancos
2021
The original sketch for this painting was drawn sitting amongst the scrub oaks at the base of the La Plata Mountains north of Mancos, CO.
Mama Mancos is an honoring of the abundance and aliveness of the land. The sleeping pregnant figure is a representation of mother earth: her flesh and blood are the hills and valleys and rivers. Her body gives life to all the plants and animals that root and walk upon her. This painting is one of acknowledgement and gratitude.
