by Bella Erakko
Rarely does an artist come from an exceptionally strong artistic family. Dani Hudson, Alliance Art Gallery’s 2nd Saturday guest artist counts parents and grandparents on both sides with skills in carving, watercolor, acrylic, crafting, and music. Not surprising, as a child, Dani loved to draw—and her mother often joined her. But with adulthood, jobs, and “life,” art got put on a back burner until one day a co-worker showed her how beautifully a morel mushroom could be carved from a deer antler. Suddenly, Dani was all in and for the next few years, mushrooms emerged occasionally from whitetail shed antlers, along with rings. “It was like I had found the muse again,” she explained, “and I began painting again.” Then one day last year, she was handed a steer skull. Drawn to its haunting austerity, she was asked if she’d like to try something with it. So she picked up her Dremel carving tools and began to experiment. Hours passed as she engraved images from nature onto the bone, transforming it from something to be discarded into something quite beautiful.
She has not looked back, though she continues to explore technique. She likes scrolling using leather-type tooling techniques, but also flowers and leaves, especially oak leaves. “I always have dreams of trying new thing. I’m one of those people who say, ‘Oh, I won’t buy it; I can make it.’ Most people don’t, but I do.” Hunters supply her with coyotes that have been culled during state-authorized predator hunts. She finds the skull thinner than bovine and easier to carve. Cow and Steer skulls come from locals who happen to have them on hand, either from self butchering or a natural death in the herd. When there is a kill hole in the skull, she uses that to create circular art radiating from that spot.
To enhance the design, Dani explains, “Sometimes I use gray spray paint to show off the detail; sometimes I use leather dye; sometimes I use paste wax. It’s been a learning process.” One day she showed some of her skull-art to her coworkers, uncertain how they’d react. But one man turned to her and touched by what he saw, said, “You take something morbid and turn it into something beautiful.”
