Our Featured Artist of the Day is Mona Dandan!

Our Featured Artist of the Day is Mona Dandan!

Mona is a high school student from Richmond, Virginia! She is currently attending Deep Run High School and hopes to attend college for engineering. In the future, Dandan would like to pursue a career as an artist producing art with machine design.

Mona has been creating work similar to her work in “Undiscovered.” for a little over one year. Her piece “Family Portrait” received Honorable Mention in The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Dandan explains, “I created ‘Family Portrait’ with only one other piece in my style, and I created it a year ago. I transitioned into the style of the piece titled ‘Vexation’ in winter of 2013, and I have been creating pieces like that ever since”.

Her process for creating “Vexation” involves multiple layers of paint. She sands down her layers to reveal older layers, giving her abstract work depth and texture. “I started by layering a lot of paint on canvas. Then I paint a thick layer of gesso and write (with my finger) into the wet layer while blow-drying it with a hair dryer. The result is a bumpy white surface that has words written into it. I continue to paint layers of colors on top of that white layer until I decide to sand the canvas. When I sand it, the paint that is on the white ridges sand away, revealing the white beneath, and the paint that is in the crevices of the white gesso layer remains. At points, the white gesso and the paint above it gets completely sanded off, leaving the colors below peaking through. ’Vexation’ and paintings like it have around thirty layers of paint”, says Mona.

Mona is inspired by the world around her. She was inspired to create “Family Portrait” after seeing a video about Afghanistan contemporary art. “A lot of the work featured balloons”, explains Dandan, “The balloons symbolized empty promises, especially in politics”. Mona liked the idea of using balloons in her works, so she decided to apply the symbolism to herself. She recognized the balloon as a symbol for over-optimism and unrealistic thinking.


Visit Gallery Flux today to see Mona Dandan’s work in our “Undiscovered.” Show! We are open from 11:00am to 4:00pm!

“Family Portrait” (top)

Rope and Paper Mache
10 x 8 x 6 in
$ 100.00

“Vexation”
Acrylic on Canvas
14 x 12 in
$ 150.00