Life & Work with Sasha Daniel of Downtown, Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sasha Daniel.

Hi Sasha, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
As a small child I grew up being pretty creative. Whether it was crafts, drawings, or paintings, as most children are; I was just always creative.
As the years went on and I grew from my adolescence to young adulthood, the craving to create again had reappeared. I was about 20-21 years old and working at a hot chicken job when this feeling had risen.
Lucky for me, I had some amazingly gifted coworkers, one of which named Devin, who. I could express this need to create to.
So, over the course of 2 weeks I remember clocking into work and every shift telling my coworkers, but especially Devin, how my drawings or sketching just isn’t scratching this itch, this desire to create enough. I needed something more.
This is when I realized I not only wanted, but was feeling this need to paint again. It may sound silly to those who don’t understand, but that heavy desire to paint and to express myself creatively that way was such an intense built up urge. I needed to paint again.

Devin himself was a music artist, so he understood this intense feeling, but at this time I genuinely couldn’t afford to get all the materials I needed, everything I made went to rent and bare necessities. Then, one day I go to clock into work and he tells me, “Sasha, I have something for you”. He proceeded to go retrieve this brown plastic bag and enters back into the store. He hands it to me open, and when I look inside it was about 4 canvases and small bottles of paint, nothing else.
Boy was I ecstatic over this! I couldn’t have thanked him enough, and I just remember being so grateful asking him how could I repay him, and his action and response watered the seed that was just being to grow its first roots in me. So, when I asked, “how can I repay you”, Devin’s response was, “just create”. I tear up thinking about this moment because it was this gesture that started the snowball effect of my art career.

Devin if you’re reading this, I love you so much for this moment, and I know God sent you my way on purpose. To this day, thank you.

That day when I got off I immediately went home and started painting. Remind you all I had was the canvases and paint, I never had my own materials, so I started off finger painting and painting with random objects around the house like forks, toothpicks, napkins, random bolts, whatever I could find that made enough sense to use. When I told my mom about this interaction and how I was happily painting, she went ahead and bought me a whole starter kit; acrylic, water and oil paint, canvases, an easel, paint brushes, acrylic and water pads to paint on.
It was about 4-6 paintings after this that I created this painting that must’ve been about 12”x10”, it had a red background and a minimalistic face smiling, showing its teeth. Because of this, I named this piece “TEEF”.

I went back to work to put the matte varnish on since I had just finished before I had to leave to work my shift. When I got to the store again I shared the painting and title with my friend at the time. It was this last moment that lead to me pursuing my art. He inspired me to turn the title “TEEF” into an acronym. I spent two hours standing at the register thinking what it could possibly mean. Then boom, “To Everyone Expressing Freely” came to mind, and the flood gates opened. It was this moment that began to brain storm all the things TEEF could be, because with a name like this, how could I not create something bigger than myself and my own creation? My art will be for everyone.

After this over the course of time painting became something more to me outside of creating these images for fun. It became my therapy. Using art to process difficult emotions, situations, lessons, and the heartaches I grew up having – new and old. Situations like losing my older brother Steven, homelessness at a young age, or processing a breakup with someone I used to see forever with. Art has helped me process so many forms of loss, grief, mistreatment from lovers, guilt, life’s hardships and lessons. The more I learned to openly express myself on a canvas honestly, the more impactful I notice my paintings becoming. The imagery became my diary when I lacked the words for these big emotions I just didn’t know how to process at the time.

By the time I was 22 turning 23 I moved to Downtown, Los Angeles from Sherman Oaks to finally actively pursue an art career after about 3 years of creating paintings under TEEF. I didn’t have an apartment, just friends and family who helped me and believed in me. I remember in this transitional stage of life the tears I cried at any sight of a blessing that was aligned with my growth as an artist, whether it was community or soon to be bookings. When I began to discover my community, my heart just swelled up. This is when I found some of my closest friends who inspired me creatively. Some were poets, others were dj’s, cameramen, models, fellow artists… a mix of the few maybe. They inspired me and helped me grow as a creative myself. Over the course of months just shy of a year I learned to network and make connections in creative spaces. This led to more opportunities and going from live paintings for my friends events to; live paintings and showcasing at Habibi Takeover (a Palestinian event), Black on the Block, modeling for a photography project called “The Other Shift”, new commission pieces, and selling some of my old original works- one of which went to a Super Bowl NFL player, Velus Jones Jr.
I also began hosting my own Paint & Sip events, and more memories than I can recall on at this moment. My art began to grow, and I never let nothing stop me from it.
Now I’m 24, and as of the last 6 months, there’s been so much healing in me, followed by such intense feelings of gratitude, love, and a passion for life I have never experienced before. And now, I get to paint from this space instead of painting through pain, and my art reflects that now. I mentioned my art is a reflection of my life. There’s so many stories behind my pieces that others can relate to. If these paintings help me feel seen and understood, that means they can do it for others as well.. and they have, time and time again. Now that I’m in this new expansive space, I am thrilled to see what is next. It’s my fourth year creating under TEEF, and a little shy of my second year actually building under it… I am so excited to see what will be next. I actually just put my artwork in the Beverly Center Mall inside of Looks For Lease in collaboration with UNMET, Looks For Lease, and fashion designer Malena Ruth to display a garment of hers that I had the honors of adding my own couple touches and artwork on, alongside exhibiting three paintings the shirt was inspired by.

So yea, I’m absolutely thrilled to see how things continue to grow and how I’ll continue to impact the art community and the world with my work, because for me, this is and will be a lifelong journey. I’m just here to soak it all in, praying to positively impact, inspire and encourage others who have the seed of creation within them too. Just as Devin did for me. After all, I truly believe the time for creatives is now, and always has been. We are the recorders of real experiences of our time. And when people far in the future look back to know what the world was like, they’ll reference us to know the history.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not, but it’s never felt like I couldn’t over come something.
On this journey I experienced homelessness 2 separate times, I’ve experienced my character being torn down whether it was intentional or not by the other party, I’ve came across people who seem my potential and light who just wanted to keep my growth in their control while overstepping my boundaries, I’ve experienced basic doubt from others early on, and sometimes having a hard time to financially support my projects, but there was and is always a way. No struggle lasted too long, there was no struggle that I could not bare, and God always made sure I could rise to any occasion. The hardships never prosper, I’m just not built for the them to.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a Los Angeles–based multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores the intersections of identity, memory, and contemporary culture. Through an evolving visual language, Corin considers the ways personal and collective experiences are translated, preserved, and communicated through abstract paintings.

I’m mostly proud of the current exhibit I joined with UNMET at the Beverly Center mall and finally getting my artwork on an article of clothing, let alone one designed by fashion designer Malena Ruth. They’ll even be for sale soon! I am also very happy to have sold a painting to Velus as well as get to know him some. Truly an amazing man with a beautiful heart!

What sets me apart in all honesty is my personality, as an artist I could say the way I choose to express myself on canvas as someone who uses both imagery and poetry to bring these stories on canvas to life.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I’m a very empathetic, affectionate and loving individual who’s driven and lives through the heart.. I’m sensitive to people and energies, and this is what fuels me as a creative.
What’s important to my success is that I get to do cool things like share my work with others, and leave a lasting impact on this earth so that when my time comes I can inspire and influence generations to come and hopefully family too.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corinteef?stkn=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr