Daniel Medina, August 2024
Recognizing American Artist Appreciation Month

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Dr. Daniel Medina’s mixed-media paintings explore the intersection of poetry, music, and painting, showing how these mediums inspire and broaden each other’s aesthetic horizons. His artworks use words, collage, spray paint, ink, colored pencils, charcoal, watercolors, and acrylics to express themes like nostalgia, emotions, and the human condition. Words expand on the paintings while the paintings show what words cannot fully express. Each medium is invited to dialogue, transporting the audience to a place where words are transcended, and other sensations take over.

Daniel has over 15 years of experience in education and is skilled in teaching high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. Recognized as a professional educator, he is innovative, beloved by students, and a staunch advocate for them.

His favorite word is Saudade, a Portuguese term suggesting a sense of active nostalgia where memories and emotions are deeply intertwined. Daniel’s poetry, music, and paintings serve as dreamcatchers—bringing his memory into matter, incarnating his lived experience, and offering his art as “truths” embedded within.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Miami, Florida, Daniel graduated from Florida International University and served in U.S. Military Intelligence. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Oklahoma and St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens, FL, where he earned his doctorate with distinction.

Daniel has written and presented lectures on a variety of topics, including Charles Williams’ Theology of Romantic Love and Co-Inherence, Zen Meditation, Mindfulness, World Religions and Spirituality, Conflict Resolution, José Marti, the Philosophy of Design, Contemporary music genres, and the American Transcendentalist Movement. Dr. Medina is a Miami-Dade County Public schoolteacher and an ordained minister with the United Church of Christ.

Learn more about Daniel at his website.