"Talent" A loaded word!
Not so long ago I posted above picture of one of my sculptures to my Facebook page. Many people shared this post, one of which was my wonderful sister-in-law Jaime. With her share she commented, “My brother in law is a very hard-working artist. (I refuse to say...
You don't suck. You're just learning!
Just the other day, as I was helping a student she said, “I just suck at this.” Believe it or not but this kind of talk is very common for young artists. Maybe you have even said something like it yourself. My response to this was “You don’t suck. You’re just...
Out on the Town! – Announcement and Goals
This being my first post in 2016 I would usually make it a post all about my Goals as an artist so you can help me follow through and give encouragement with what I plan to do this year. However I have some exciting news that needs to be announced. Don’t worry I will...
Daniel Borup's Year in Review
Well... here it is. The last blog post of the year. Well at least I am starting it before the year is over. I hope to get it posted before next year starts. If you are joining the blog for the first time this will be a good post to catch you up on everything that has...
Why is Art important in schools?
I was recently interviewed by a woman taking an Art Education class at a local college. Although I don’t remember the specific questions that were asked the general idea of most of the questions were “why is art important in our schools?" Honestly this is a question...
Hollowing out John F. Shelley and Starting Again.
The Shelley City Council accepted my proposal for my bust of John F. Shelley to go in City Hall. This week I finished him up, and Hollowed him out. Here is a picture of me doing that. If you are unaware about how firing a water based clay sculpture works allow me to...
Entering Art Shows: Confidence Building or Dream Crushing?
It's an exciting week where I live! The Eastern Idaho Fair is going on and everyone is either involved in the fair or excited to go and have some fun there.. A major part of the fair for me has always been the Fine Art Competition. Even when I was a child I would...
Back on Blogging
This post has been long in coming. When I started this blog I said I would be posting once a week, and I did for a while. Once summer hit, I kind of dropped the ball. Well now that the school year has started again and I have more structure in my life I am resolving...
Beginning of Summer Recap
It has been a busy summer both artistically and otherwise. I have not written a post in a number of weeks an as such have so much to say I hardly know where to start. This blog post will be a quick recap of the past few weeks and I will also tell you about a couple...
We become what we surround ourselves with.
This week I went to the Shelley High School Graduation. I have been teaching some of these students every year for the past 4 years. Some of them I have become very close too and despite what I usually tell them, I will miss them a little. There are many things that I...
How to overcome "Artist Block"
The other day one of my students asked me what I do when I get “Artist Block”. I quickly responded “Artist Block? It doesn’t exist!”. This student disagreed as well as other students in the area who were listening to the conversation. “Yes it does.” One would say “I...
Can artwork inspire you to be a better person?
Just yesterday I was traveling in Salt Lake City to drop off my sculpture The Good Samaritan to the Church History Museum for the second round of judging in the International LDS Art Completion. When entering the contest you have to submit a sort of statement about...
My Time With Artist Marilyn Hoff Hansen
This week I was pleased to enjoy an awesome demonstration from one of the most fantastic artists I know Marilyn Hoff Hansen. I enjoyed it so much I decided to make this post is feature on her. Marilyn is know for her beautiful horse sculptures and paintings. The...
Taking a look back at "Shelter"
It has been a little over a year since I sculpted Shelter. This sculpture was a bit of a breakthrough for me. I knew I wanted to be a figure sculptor but at this point I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do and say with my art. There is nothing wrong...
Where to find artist reference photos.
A common problem among artists is where to find artist reference photos. The ideal situation is to take your own photos. However not all of us are competent photographers and even those of us who are it is not always convenient or realistic to find and pay a...
Lessons Learned From Routine | Blog Post 4/2/15
I am a little reluctant to write this post today. It has been two weeks since my last post. You see... although I made the goal to write a weekly blog this entire year, I missed a week. It was spring break, and I had an entire week off from my day job as a High School...
Art Exhibitions! | Blog Post | 3/20/15
This week has been full of Art Exhibitions! On Monday I delivered my sculpture "Sanctuary" in Bonded Bronze to the Idaho Falls Arts Council for this years National Exhibition. This show is always fantastic and if you are in the area I highly recommend going to see it....
Keeping Momentum | Blog Post 3/12/15
It's hard to beat a week like last week as far as excitement and how much work I was able to get done. Although much of this week has been recuperating after wearing my body out, it has also been one that I have tried to keep the momentum going. The end of my Artist...
Artist In Residence | Idaho Art Lab | Blog Post 2/6/15
Busy, busy, busy! | Blog post 2/26/15
Busy here as an artist. Between trying to finish my Good Samaritan sculpture and entered into a contest, apply for some summer art festivals who's deadlines are coming up really soon, getting ready for next weeks artist residency, holding a sculpture giveaway, all...
Why I giveaway my sculptures, and how you can get one!
The big exciting thing this week is that I began another Sculpture Giveaway. This is my third sculpture giveaway and I thought I should take some time to clear things up. There are two questions on everyone's mind when I run one of these contests. Well maybe more,...
The Lion, Tools, And Public Demonstrations | Artist Log 2-12-15
A Childhood Story | How I learned to read and write.
This week I am going to break away from my regular format of updating you on the artistic things I did this week, and instead I am going to tell you a story. This is a personal and true story and in it I am going to talk about my childhood, and something that...
Sanctuary – Blog Post: 1/29/15
The Good Samaritan VS. The Cyborg Yeti
The start of this week was filled again with being a stay at home Dad while my wife was one a trip to Florida. Although much of my days were taken up with entertaining my children, on some nights I was able to get them in bed early enough for me to do some of my own...
Stay at home Dad while being an Artist.
What a week! Sometimes art happens, and sometimes other things happen while you are trying to do art. This week a little of both happened. As many of you know I am a High School Art Teacher. For me this was the first week of the new semester. Since my...
New Year-New Adventures-New Blog
Happy New Year! 2014 was a great year. For me it was full of many leaps and bounds as well as some disappointments along the way. Over the years I have come to accept the fact that no matter how great and noble my resolutions are at the beginning of the year, by the...
Last day of school student work.
It's the last day of school. Here is a painting by a student of mine. It will be going in the hallway at Shelley High School. I'm pretty proud of this student she did an excellent job. The painting is 4 feet tall.
Figure sculpting from life.
I've been working on a figure sculpture with my high school students. Our model is an exchange student from Africa. Sculpting from life is so much fun. I love being an artist.