Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Berman.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story is as follows. I grew up in a family of five boys, the son of a doctor and a nurse in the suburbs of Fairfield County Connecticut. A Little town called Ridgefield. I was a bit troubled growing up, diagnosed with ADHDOCD and other things of the sorts you could say I was a bit of a problem child even though I was very creative had a ton of energy. I had little self control or self-awareness and I was definitely feeling confused in like an outsider. My parents struggled to contain me, and therefore I was overmedicated from a very young age and eventually in my adolescent years, I got off all the meds and started maturing as I went through puberty, and then went to college for travel and hospitality management in Providence, Rhode Island at Johnson in Wales University and really started to gain a sense of independence and finding my true identity. after going through the motions of a lot of trial on air, I came to terms that I was a gay man. This was the final straw that allowed me to break free from the prison of feeling like nobody, and not having an identity to finally realizing who I was as a person or at least starting to realize and having my sense of self starting to finally fill out. So at age 23 I finally began living as the real Dan Berman after college. My family went through a lot of hardships as my parents divorced and our family home with souls and I was displaced and I was forced to make a change and I moved to the big city of New York where I started working. For many years, I worked there in hotels, some sales roles, and even Real Estate. Unfortunately, for two years, I was involved in a very toxic abusive relationship, and there were events that transpired for this individual almost killed me. So at age 27 I packed up my stuff and I moved to Provincetown Massachusetts. it was the off-season it was drab. It was gray. It was rainy and it was also desolate so I desperately needed a new hobby that would uplift me and give me some purpose so I bought a bunch of paint and canvases and you could say the rest is history, but the fact of the matter is, I didn’t know at the time that I was actually unleashing my trauma and transmitting it into something beautiful over the course of the next few years I moved back to New York and I would still do art sporadically whether it was in the backyard or at my brother’s base. I felt a passion that was building inside of me and it felt freeing and full of possibility and like I was really onto something. Flash forward to 2020 and then the pandemic kit so I wasn’t working full-time so I started to paint a lot more and then eventually found myself leaving New York City went to Florida started doing. Art shows down there and started really taking the Art more serious with the business side approach to it. I then decided I wanted to do this road trip that I’ve always dreamt of and to go to a trial of living in Los Angeles a complete 180 from living in New York City for 6 to 7 years. So I took the risk and I traveled cross country. I did my trial continued to my heart, and then I went back to Florida to do more art shows the following winter. it wasn’t until the end of 2022. I was actually going to get a job in luxury leisure travel sales, which was my dream job or so I thought, but unfortunately it was a very toxic work environment and relationship with the person I was working with, and I was forced to terminate the working relationship. So right around Christmas and New Year’s of 2022 my partner and I had just moved into a house and I finally had a space where I could do more large scale projects and set up a real studio so for the next two years, I had my most prolific and creative arc of my art journey so far to say it was cathartic would be an understatement. It showed my evolution as a person emotionally spiritually and physically. Being n neurodivergent and on the spectrum I consider to be a blessing and a curse while my shortcomings can hold me back. They also proved to be a creative gift in other ways because my mind simply does not work like most peoples. I’m extremely sensitive, intuitive and wise for my years, but I still act very young. I truly believe that we all have the capability to do great things to influence and to inspire and ultimately with my art and my other passions, including acting, I believe we do have the power to change the world one person at a time and it’s up to us to be the role model that we want to see in the world and to give the gift of positivity and lie back to other others and to make other people smile because at the end of the day at the little things that matter the most. Now writing this, it is almost the end of 2025 and I’ve just taken a nine month hiatus after a depressive period due to multiple life incidents, but I learned that even when you fall down you’ll get back up stronger than ever and that’s what I intend to do. I truly believe I have a lot to say with my art and I look forward to sharing it with the world . I have so many crazy, intense, vivid visions of things I wanna create I’m inspired by so many things music movies, nature animals, my life experiences, of course, and how I feel inside the intense kinetic energy that runs through my blood. So I believe it is my mission in life to create to inspire and to make the world a brighter place ultimately. So through trauma trials and tribulations I have figured out that transmuting the pain into something beautiful is how we heal, and how we can influence and inspire others through our stories that we share. At the end of the day human connection is the most important thing. How we relate to each other how we can love each other and how we can build each other up and make the world a better place. This is what matters to me as I continue my journey with the art and my personal evolution. I am eager to show people what I am capable of and and of course to show myself because I’ve always had this chip on my shoulder that I’ve had something big to prove to the world and I am to do so
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, it has not been a Smooth road because as mentioned I’m neurodivergent and on the spectrum and while it can be a blessing and I am very unique it can also be a curse because I got trapped in my own mind. I’m a prisoner of my own mind and my OCD and my ADHD so Navigating this has always been a challenge because things are always changing so I’ve always had to learn to be readily adaptable and to keep moving. Being an abusive relationship, definitely taught me to value myself more and to not compromise my own safety and values, but I believe as people we have to go through these hard times to learn what we’re truly capable of and what we’re made of and that we are resilient, and that we have perseverance, strength, and power, even though at times we feel powerless. Art has given my life meaning because it’s given me an outlet giving me hope and it helps me uplift others which in return uplift me . Navigating life is just something we do one day at a time you’re always learning and trying to become the best version of myself and that is never going to stop. We are always striving to be better to do better so while life might have its hardships, those hardships are the things that push us to be greater
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work I would say up until this point has been a representation of my energy, my intensity, my passion, my spontaneity . Because of my OCD and ADHD I try to find a balance of chaos and peace in my art so while it might be very bold and powerful and colorful and chaotic, it’s still balanced because half of it has to be related to my ADHD and the other half has to be related to the OCD so there’s finding that fine line and balance between chaos and peace in the art, but ultimately in my art For the most part is extremely colorful bold and passionate because that’s who I am as a person and I want to convey that energy through my art. I am most proud of the evolution that my Art has taken in the last couple years because rather than just doing pure expressionism, I have moved into actually doing conceptual work, which is the direction I wanna go into more in the future with more surrealism and pop art subjects I’m very eager to see where my work goes in the next year or two as I include other things I’m passionate about including music, film, animals, nature, and things that other people over relate to versus just Things that are derived from my own personal experiences. What sets ne apart is that? I never studied any art history I’m self taught and I really believe I have huge potential to be one of the great artists of my generation. I’m not trying to sound egotistical, but it is in a feeling in me that I’ve always had a purpose to change the world and I do believe I can make a difference with my story and with the messages I want to send and with the beauty that I want to create
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
The quality or characteristic that I feel is most important to my success is that I’m always going to be authentic to myself and my vision. I don’t wanna be one of those artists that sells out and just does one thing because it sells I do art because I wanna create it and of course I would like to make a living for it, but I believe that the best artist created what they want and the rest follows in time also it is my energy that sets me apart because being able to transmute that clearly shows in my work you can feel the power, the intensity and the boldness in every piece. So being true to myself will be the most important thing to my success and also aligning myself with the right people along the journey.
Pricing:
- On request
- On request
- On request
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Danielbermanfineartsportfolio.com
- Instagram: Therealdanberman
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dberm90/
Image Credits
Not applicable
