 |
|
|
Danielle Siembieda Biography
Basic Bio
Danielle Siembieda currently is finishing a MFA in Digital Media at SJSU in the School of Art and Design as part of the CADRE Laboratory for New Media . She is faculty in the graphic design department at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco, CA. In addition to teaching she is also the managing editor and writer of one of the pioneering New Media journals, SWITCH Online academic journal . Danielle is the social media expert and is developing a green organizational plan for the Silicon Valley based ZER01 Art Organization responsible for hosting the biennial 01SJ festival on the edge. In the summer of 2009 she curate an international juried exhibition, Polar Identity, featuring acclaimed artists such as Xavier Cortada and Andrea Polli . In the same summer she also worked on a project submitted to the New York Time’s Dot Earth and Artist As Citizen Group regarding visualizing data illustrating the urgency of the Climate Crisis. Other important projects include participating various stages of development and construction in the Transmediale award winning Tantalum Memorial — Reconstruction with artists Harwood, Wright, Yokokoji (Formerly Mongrel) exhibited at Superlight at the San Jose Museum of Art during the 2008 01SJ Biennial and in Cincinnati . Also during the 2008 01SJ a project proposal, Eco Environmental Archive, for the Climate Clock initiative was on exhibit at the School of Engineering at SJSU . Danielle’s participation in the FUSE through the Montalvo Arts Center and CADRE has allowed her to have intimate meetings through creative means such as Geocaching with Natalie Jeremijenko and miniature golf with Kevin and Jennifer McCoy.
Danielle’s’ interest in global reformation is rooted in a background in environmental and social justice issues. Previous to her career as an artist she worked as a community developer and organizer in the Midwest and Southern California. This experience brought several challenges including mediation, peace making, and youth participation and building leaders to strive for self-sufficiency. From 1998-2004 Danielle was a member leader with Amnesty International holding various positions such as Just Earth Action Worker, Midwest Representative to the Annual General Meeting and a recipient of a member grant to develop and intertwine the various student and community groups in Columbia, MO. Other important participatory events include attending the 10th Anniversary of the Zapatista Uprising in Chiapas 2004, Mexico where she and others from the School for Chiapas stayed as special guests to the Zapatista government during one of the first time the Zapatista’s allowed for international media to join them. That same year she also participated largest march in the history of the United States with over 1.15 million documented citizens on the streets of Washington, DC in the March for Women’s Lives.
BIO NARRATIVE
My first attempt to save the world was around my bat-mitzvah. I developed a strategic plan to save the rainforest. Even at this age I recognized humans as destroyers rather than builders. My plan, hand written and seven pages long, outlined a step-by-step processes bringing in corporate entities and key partners that would be able to create the largest propaganda campaign in world history. Only one man could assist with this plan to save the planet, Vice President Al Gore. He had just come back from the Rio de Janeiro summit to talk about global warming. I was enticed by his diplomacy and commitment. I sent my only copy of my plan to the Vice President. At the time I was convinced he would be on board and ready to call in the team. Alas a letter came to me from Mr. Gore. I personally expected a phone call or a visit from national security to take me to the White House to discuss my plan further, but a letter would do for now. A cloud of disappointment shadowed my enthusiasm when the letter came back as obvious reply from someone other than Mr. Gore himself. This was my first letter of rejection.I will be heard.
For every rejection letter, non-response and non-belief I kindled a message and alchemized it into action. I continued to write letters but not only for the Vice President but for many world leaders. I found change with others as I found alliance with Amnesty International. I developed a passion for human life and justice. For years I fought on the battlegrounds of politics, industry and race. This fight was my creative process. My art became my endurance as the rush of accomplishment became my cocaine.In the my early 20’s I marched forward as a crusader, an organizer targeting communities left isolated silenced and blamed. This eclectic group of African Americans, Latinos, transplants from the Horn of Africa and others living in low-income housing complex invited me into their homes and made me part of their family. Out of place and full of heart I led a crusade for the ones who had given up on their voices being heard. They would talk to a silent wind where sound never reached god. I was the architect of their hopes. The word of my deviant plan to hand this community the tools so yearned for to make their lives in some way prosperous reached the headquarters away from the faces and the stories. I found myself in a meeting with the Director of Community Development. He was large and jolly-faced however behind the calm persona cranked his determined manipulation and disgust for those he fronted to help. His words relay “Danielle, you are a creative person, we don’t want creative people working for us. We are going to put you in a box so you cannot be creative anymore.” I sat spinning and thwarted, realizing that those voices who pleaded to the silent winds that someone would come close enough to listen, that they were never going to be heard.
I became silent.
The year 2004 was bad. President George W. Bush was elected president for the second time. In San Diego, CA a progressive mayor was elected by write-in votes then denied office due to a technicality. The March for Women’s Lives brought 1.15 million people to the streets of Washington, DC but was over shadowed by the anti-choice march a month later with 100,000 people. American diplomacy was on a sharp decline. The activist collective I was living in was falling apart. This began my hiatus from activism.The leave from activism became my pilgrimage. The break was a departure from all that I knew only to find my way back to the beginning. On this journey I was nurtured by the wizardry of Earl Storm who led me through the Artists Way. The shaman teachings of Julia Cameron, Sark, The Goenka, and my father have served a purpose to rekindle my drive to impact this planet. I have come to a point that I can bring my driven past to the playground of the present. I now realize that I can change the world in the name of art. As an artist I can be a politician, a social worker and an instigator. I may not have been heard as an activist but I will be as an artist. I am not an activist. But I have been one my whole life.
Future
My goal is to to create a portfolio of green or environmentally oriented art. I wish to work independently, collaboratively or on a research level. I hope to take my practice global.home|about| contact |archives| resume
Photography | Digital Media | Illustration |Paintings | Mixed Media
note: galleries open in new windowsite created by danielle siembieda copyright 2008
all artwork is under copyright 2008