Do You Feel at Home Everywhere or Nowhere? I Danielle Roberts

At Arts to Hearts Project, we love recognizing the brightest and most inspiring voices in the art world. Through our Best of Art World series, we highlight artists, galleries, and curators who are pushing boundaries, redefining creativity, and making a real impact on contemporary culture.

This time, we had the privilege of sitting down with Danielle Roberts, an extraordinary artist whose journey has taken her from the serene shores of Gabriola Island to the bustling streets of Brooklyn. Her work is a vibrant exploration of light, movement, and belonging, capturing the beauty of life’s “in-between” moments with bold purples and striking contrasts what she calls her “comfort in chaos.”

Despite the challenges of sustaining an early studio practice, Danielle’s persistence and support through grants helped her carve out a space for her art, ultimately earning recognition in publications like Artforum, Juxtapoz, and WhiteHot.

Let’s step into her world and get to know Danielle more closely in this interview.

Q1. Danielle, your background spans Gabriola Island to Brooklyn, via Stockton. How have these diverse places shaped your visual sensibility?

In many ways. First, just the act of moving so much in general, having travelled great distances regularly made me interested in the feeling of being between places and the awkwardness of those non space spaces that relate to travel. Along with that comes the emotional experience of both leaving and arriving and all of the feelings that bubble up in between. It also made me curious about space in relation to values and/or systems. How different places embody different values or ideas of being that might relate to an inherent purpose or sometimes objectives of the place. For example, the difference between a constructed public space versus a natural public space and public behaviour within each. I think light has so much to do with the way a space feels, and it is something that very much shapes my visual sensibility. I think it also complicated my own sense of belonging

Q2. You’ve described your use of purple and color contrasts as “comfort in chaos.” Can you elaborate on what inspires your choice of colours? 

Colour has always been what I love most about painting or making in general. More specifically though, the deeply saturated colours and the contrast in my work is inspired by the landscape of the pacific northwest. It rains there so much that everything becomes saturated in colour from being wet. Through the act of painting, I love to cause “disruptions” with colour and then try to balance it out. I think the result is something that should be “too much” but feels ok.

Q3. What are the themes and emotions that you aim to invoke through your artworks? 

I think every painting is a little different but in general, anticipation, discontent, alienation, hope, longing, love, misunderstanding, conflict, familiarity and warmth.

Q4. Can you describe your process of creation – from starting to end? 

I usually begin with an idea or a feeling, sometimes it is an experience or something I see in life that relates to things that I am thinking about at the time. Then I will try to figure it out in a drawing or sometimes through photography but that is not always possible. From there I choose a color that is important to capturing the feeling of the whole thing. I start with this color as the ground of the canvas and work intuitively from there.

Q5. Your exhibitions have been featured in Artforum, Juxtapoz, WhiteHot, and more. How does critical attention shape or reflect your evolving creative confidence?

For me the social part of art is very different than the studio experience. I consider press to be part of the social part. I am always really grateful and surprised each time someone asks to publish my work. I think it maybe helps me to feel more confident in social settings like introducing myself to new people. But working in the studio and creative confidence is a completely different thing. The social part remains outside of that.

Q6. What are the main challenges you faced as an emerging artist and how did you overcome them? 

I think the main challenge early on for any artist (who isn’t independently wealthy) is being able to afford being in the studio full time before you begin to have exhibition opportunities. That early transition from making to showing is the most difficult because of financial stress. I turned to grants and was very lucky to have been awarded enough that I could afford to work in the studio and it really helped everything else fall into place.

As we wrap up our conversation with Danielle, we’re left holding pieces of her journey, her search for belonging, her reflections on space, and her love for those bold, saturated hues that speak louder than words. Her art stays with you, like a quiet echo offering moments of hope, longing, and the tender poetry of what it means to be human. Danielle’s path reminds us that being an artist is as much about courage and perseverance as it is about creating beauty.

Stay connected with Danielle and follow along as she continues to share her world, one powerful story and one vibrant canvas at a time.