I make paintings and drawings based on photos that I take as I move through daily life. My approach to subject matter is born out of a practiced disposition of receptivity. That is to say, I pass through the days with my hands open, expectant and ready to receive the gift. The gift is a moment, an event transpiring in real time and space with particular light and air. I have found no formula to predict what factors create these moments. They are unique and surprising. Alert, I wait for these moments. I wait for my seeing to become vision. 

Having a direct and personal relationship with the subject is essential for me, which is why I work exclusively from my own photos. However, much of the contextual information that makes any moment so striking is often lost when translated to photograph. For this reason, when painting from these printed photographs, I intentionally set up certain habits and interventions that force me to engage with my memory and imagination instead of relying totally on the photo for visual information.

Through my works, I seek to offer an intimate gaze at the uncanny moments of life, when the veil of the ordinary is lifted to reveal the awful (awe-full) reality of being.

Daniel M. Granitto returned to his hometown of Lakewood, Colorado in 2016 after living and working in Chicago, Illinois for six years where he received his BFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Granitto’s works have been exhibited in galleries and museums spanning the western United States. Daniel currently works out of his home studio in Lakewood where he lives with his wife and two kids.