Member Spotlight - December

Danuta Loane

Danuta attended Harper College in Palatine for two years and then went on to finish at Columbia College in art, specifically in painting.  Her job after she finished school was with Florence Art Conservation where she worked for 2 ½ years restoring artwork in buildings in Chicago.  Florence Art Conservation moved their project to California, and Danuta chose to stay in Chicago and worked for Metlife Insurance Company.  Working at Metlife gave her the skills to work in the office of her father’s woodworking business.  To this day, she works one day a week for her father doing payroll. 

Danuta worked to find a way to transition from working for the family business to something on her own.  She went to school to become an esthetician and worked at a spa.  In 2001 she married and happily gave birth to her daughter in 2002.

While still working one day a week at the spa, and one day a week at her dad’s firm, Danuta began painting again.  She painted mostly flowers and items found in nature.  Though she began in oils, she eventually worked in acrylics, both for the quicker drying time as well as less of a smell.  She started to do art shows and even won an award at one.  She worked on a series of paintings based on old family photographs entitled:  From Poland to America.

 In 2011, at the suggestion of a friend, she took her first pottery class at Fine Line with Jodi Younglove.  She credits that class with a complete change in her art.  She fell in love with ceramics.  Although she still does some painting, she works on ceramics full time.  She credits Fine Line for setting her on this wonderful journey.  She now has a studio in her home and works there 5-6 hours a day.  For a while she also had a studio at the Dole Mansion in Crystal Lake and had three openings there until the pandemic hit. 

Danuta loves whole process of ceramics.  She often starts with mugs and uses a variation of the design to do different items.  Her pieces are all functional.  Nature is what inspires her designs, and she does variations of flowers and animals.  Being mindful of nature is a large influence in her work.  Danuta and her family live in unincorporated Dundee.  Their property is used for the release for a wildlife rescue organization.

For Danuta, her art if much a family affair.  Her daughter is going to Cosmetology school to become a hair stylist, but is an artist in her own right besides doing hair design.  Her father-in-law helps Danuta in her studio by sanding her pieces.  Her husband works in her father’s woodworking business.

Danuta gets a lot of satisfaction from selling her work.  She likes to keep her prices reasonable so that more people can afford her work.  She has her pieces on Etsy and looks forward to one day having a website on Square Space. 

You can see and purchase Danuta’s work at the Dempsey Gallery at Fine Line.