Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center

In spring of 2022 our family took a trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton area. One stop that is a must if you’re in that area is the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. We stopped as we were leaving Yellowstone and spent a few hours watching the wolves and bears. We were lucky enough to be there during meal times! It was very interesting seeing the way the wolf pack interacted with each other as they ate and neat to see how the keepers hid the bear’s food throughout the enclosure to encourage the bear to scavenge the enclosure similar to how she would in the wild. My favorite part though, was seeing the ravens and how they stayed just out of reach of the predatory animals but still managed to get their share of food.

While I understand the importance of places like the discovery center which educates the public and provides safety for animals who can no longer roam free, seeing them caged still makes me sad. In my art I like to remove them from the zoo setting and put them back into the wild. So far I have only made two paintings from this location but am sure I’ll be making more over winter! Both are available for purchase at my fine art store if you’re interested. www.danarosefineart.com/store

Dinner Date

Spotting His Prey

Visit the fine art store to view more art!

Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center

The Warrior & His Guide

My family is often very involved in my creative pieces. They’re who I bounce ideas off of and they’re easy victims for when I need models. Sometimes ideas come from locations I find while out hiking with my son and sometimes from books or movies I watch. I do prefer to make up my own characters instead of doing cosplay pieces as I find it more challenging and fun. I have notebooks full of character outlines and this image came from one of those.

“Just hold this and stand there for a few minutes please!” - said the wife who had an idea.

My husband, Jesse, is the model for this image. I had him posing wearing what he had on that day which is an ugly orange zip up sweatshirt. I hate that shirt but it’s one he often wears while working around the house. Unfortunately I do not have a collection of magical staffs so I simply had him holding our daughters old, pink walking stick. A stick sword fight did break out between him and the kids in the studio as I attempted to get him to be serious for just a few minutes!

The Warrior and His Guide

- An excerpt of a tale by Dana Rose

Jaron was a traveler tasked to wander the medieval lands keeping an eye out for uprisings of evil. He often spent a lot of time on his own not seeing another soul for days but he always had his trusty guide near by. Jaron found Hawkins, a beautifully colored Harris Hawk as a young bird tangled in a fisherman’s net years ago and he has been his faithful guide since. Hawkins flew above scouting the trail in front of Jaron leading him to where he needed to go and warning of dangers ahead.

Jaron was trained by the old warlock monks deep in the foreboding mountains of Duran. Duran was home to the highest peeks in the world and is said to be where the gates of hell are hidden. The monks are the only ones who dare to inhabit the mountain range with it’s harsh climate of wicked storms brought on by the pure evil locked away within. Their mission is to guard the gates ensuring that the monsters locked away deep within the earth never escape.

The training methods Jaron endured were strict and harsh but as a result he was one of the most fearsome warriors of his time. He was train in hand to hand combat but had deep knowledge of magic lost to the lowland dwellers long ago. He fashioned a special talisman that Hawkins wore which allowed the pair to not only communicate but Jaron could see what Hawkins was viewing as he flew above.

Currently the pair were traveling through a misty forest filled with sharp cliffs and deep ravines. Jaron depended heavily on Hawkins with his sharper eyesight to navigate him away from the deadly drop-offs as visibility was little to none in these parts. They were on the trail of the Beast of Givaudan, a man-eating wolf said to be three times the size of the dire wolves found in these parts and grossly deformed. It’s believed to be the creature who slaughtered an entire village five days past. Jaron has been on it’s trail for a month now but the monster was elusive and seemed to be able to simply disappear into the mist that covered this land. Hawkins was getting quite agitated and seemed to sense that the creature was near, quite possibly stalking Jaron. Has the hunter become the hunted?

Hawkins - a close up of the details in the image.

Hidden Stories

After my first blog post my daughter, Amber, pretty much demanded I write about one of her images next. (I was planning on doing so, I swear!) One of her favorite images has a deeper, hidden story behind it that makes it even more special to us. Sometimes past experience and life events join together to add more depth and mean to a story. This is often the case with a lot of my storytelling pieces.

When my kids were 3 and 5 we brought our first home in the town I grew up in. Grandma and Grandpa lived just down the street so Amber, being the oldest, was very excited. She came with us one day before we purchased the house to look around and chat with the owner. Amber was delighted to find out that the lady living in the house had a dog! Up to this point Amber had been told that we were “borrowing” the house that we had been living in which was why there were somethings we couldn’t do, such as owning a dog. With that excuse no longer standing in her way Amber wanted nothing more than a dog of her own and grandpa was determined to help her get one!

Meet Dexter!

We ended up rescuing a wild and crazy red Labrador Retriever. Dexter was pretty much the perfect first dog. He loved us unconditionally and kept things very interesting. He absolutely adored the kids and was always near them. He was often found wearing a superhero cape with my son or attending a tea party with my daughter. Amber would often paint his nails and he would even allow her to dry them under her little nail dryer. When it came to the kids there wasn’t much he wouldn’t put up with, except having his portrait taken! I tried so many times to get a nice storytelling portrait of Amber dolling him up with pretty nails but as soon as that camera went in front of my face he’d take off straight for me. I’d could get one or two group photos with him and the kids but could never get what I truly wanted. Which was an art piece to hang in my daughter’s room.

When he got older and wanted to take more naps rather than walk with me or play with the kids we decided to add a puppy to the family. That’s when we found Luke. Luke was so very patient and tolerant from the very beginning. He was so smart and quickly picked up on how to earn extra treats. It didn’t take long before he would go to my studio set ups and strike a pose with whatever might be there when he saw my camera. I’m sure he was just hamming it up in hopes of getting a treat!

She Knows I’m a Boy, Right?

By the time we got Luke, Amber was starting to out grow the dress up and imaginary play phase. She still did so a little with him but not near as much as she did with Dexter. But Luke was very willing to let us recreate this slumber party makeover scene with him and with all his floofy hair he was the perfect subject! He was only 7 months old in this portrait and got lots of treats for sitting and posing so well. His expression seemed to go so well with the fact that he’s a boy all covered in girly stuff getting all dolled up but honestly he was just thrilled to be a part of it. He loves the attention!

I ended up entering this image into PPA’s district print competition and scored my first perfect score of 100. I remember watching the judging online with Dexter laying near my feet just shocked by the comments during judging. At this point I was still pretty new to print competition and this was by far the highest score I had received. I worked so hard that year learning new lighting and editing techniques and I loved hearing that the judges loved the story shown in the image as much as I did.

That was an incredibly emotional day as that was also the day we had to put Dexter down. He had diabetes and his condition had gotten so much worse that year. Even though I really wanted to postpone his vet visit just one more time and keep him with us just a little longer I just couldn’t do that to him. He was so frail and ready even though we had been saying goodbye for a while knowing it was coming, letting him go broke our heart.

When I look at this image I’m not just seeing the story of Amber playing with our sweet and patient Luke but so much more. I’m reminded of Dexter and all the sweet things he did with the kids and how much he gave to all of us. I’m reminded of his silly personality and how he’d charge and tackle me whenever the camera came up to my face! I’m reminded of his constant presence by my feet as I learned how to create storytelling artwork. I’m reminded that there’s so much more than what’s visible to most. Those hidden stories are what make portraits and storytelling artwork so important.

Chasing Stories

All my life I have been a huge fan of stories, whether it be in the form of books, movies, listening to others tell their tales, or getting lost in my own daydreams. As a kid I wanted to be like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and float down the river on a makeshift raft, finding my own adventures. I stayed up way too late reading just one more chapter and got lost in drawing my own daydreams. As an adult I’m not so sure I’ve changed too much in that regard…

As a portrait artist my job is to help others tell their stories. I photograph children, families and seniors and love being able to show their interests, relationships and emotions within the portraits. I also enjoy getting out into nature and creating photographic art on my own time. I honestly believe that stories are everywhere and they help make our world feel a little bit magical. Sometimes the things we see in reality give away to something a bit more surreal. It is my intention in this blog to share some of my stories whether real, make believe or a wonderful combination of the two.

“So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land!” - Peter Pan

Adventure to Skull Rock Falls

The above image was created in 2020 and features a fantasy image of my son, Evan, and our dog, Luke. Evan and I both love hiking and while hiking we talk about all sorts of things including what could possibly be found around the next bend or if we went a bit further than everyone else. What if we went to the top of the hill to catch a view that looks different there than anywhere else?! What would we see?

Evan has always loved maps and is often our navigator. Don’t worry I have the GPS! But of the two of us he does seem to have the better sense of direction. So in this story Evan is the navigator and Luke is following along happy to be wherever his boy is. Luke is a Great Pyrenees/Great Dane mix and instead of running ahead of us on a trail he plods along just slightly behind, always watching and guarding.

The scenery in the background comes from Badlands NP in South Dakota. If you haven’t ever been you really should make the trip! There are many great views that can be seen from the park road and many animals to spot along the way.

Parts of the falls and the big rock in the foreground come from Falls Park in Sioux Falls, SD. We don’t live too far from Sioux Falls and have been to Falls Park many times. It’s kind of a citified park but beautiful none the less.

This image hangs in my son’s room and will hopefully remind him to always be curious about what lies ahead. The adventure and fun in life can often be found in blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. The road to that adventure often lies in simply being curious and letting your imagination roam!