That painful time inspired me to pursue a career in teaching art so that I could find the kid like me who struggled academically but was able to find some joy in the art room. —Danielle Mailer
A visit to Danielle Mailer’s colorful Goshen studio found her busy getting ready for a show at Hunt Library’s ArtWall in Falls Village. The show opens Sept. 19 with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. and runs through Oct. 23.
She explained, “With just weeks to go and a stack of blank small wooden panels, I set up a challenge to do a painting a day. This became a painting a week. I always forget how little works can be brutal to resolve.”
Well-known for her large-scale work, she commented on taking a break from it.
“I love the way the public art projects involve the community. All of the large-scale works include many hands. But I also welcome the times when I can be in the studio working in solitude and managing a modest-size canvas as opposed to a 200-foot mural.”
Besides the small paintings, she is finishing art for gardens, which will also be in the Hunt show. These tall metal columns are topped with birds, cats or rabbits. Each side takes her about a week to paint, with the intricate patterns and designs that are trademarks of her art.
“My lifelong love for pattern spills over onto every surface, often stepping beyond canvases to chairs, walls, etc. I once saw a quote by an unknown artist who said, ‘To pattern is to make human.’”
Mailer has also been designing costumes for the Nutmeg Ballet’s upcoming production of “El Colibri” (“The Hummingbird”).
Recently, she had a piece in Provincetown.
In mid-August, The Berta Walker Gallery which represents her, commissioned Mailer to make a piece for a show titled “Collaboration.”
“I created a five-foot spinning, two-sided figure silhouette, and my husband, Peter McEachern, a professional jazz musician, composed a piece to accompany this swinging muse. It’s the first time in our 25-year relationship that we have joined forces this way. It was very exciting and possibly a new path.”
“Mi Alma Gemela” by Danielle Mailer, 2026. Acrylic on canvas.
Murals by Mailer decorate the city of Torrington, ranging in size from 12 feet to 200 feet. They include “Horse Tale” near the children’s museum, “Fishtales” behind Staples above the Naugatuck River, “Cat Tales” above Five Points Gallery and “Ballet Dancer” at Nutmeg Ballet. At the Bantam Arts Factory is a mural of a potter at work. Leonora, the mountain lion, is a well-known figure outside Scoville Library in Salisbury.
“As a young child I was in certain ways defined by my inability to read. I was and am, most definitely dyslexic, but in those days, some 65 years ago, they did not have the diagnostic tools. So, I felt clueless in the classroom for years. But in the art room I was often a star, and it pretty much saved me from despair. Eventually I managed and did well academically. When making things, I felt successful. I think that painful time inspired me to pursue a career in teaching art so that I could find the kid like me who struggled academically but was able to find some joy in the art room.”
Mailer taught for 30 years, first at Indian Mountain School and then at Salisbury School.
Mailer’s parents — her father, a writer, and her mother, an abstract expressionist painter — were always very supportive of her.
“I would describe my childhood New York City apartments with my mother as creative chaos. She always picked the room with the best light to set up her studio. Invariably, this was the living room, which became an ongoing, ever-changing giant still life. Color, pattern, palettes, with large globs of paint that several cats would often run through, making colored paw prints on the parquet floors. And then a smell of some savory stew (she was a great cook) mingling with the odor of turpentine. All of this was my childhood backdrop.”
Mailer studied at Bowdoin College, New York Studio School and the School of Visual Arts.
At New York Studio School, “We drew from the figure five hours a day and the instructors were very rigid. It was the early ’80s, and Cezanne was the artist du jour. I was more interested in making giant Matisse-like paintings but quickly realized that to survive the program it would be Cezanne. It temporarily killed my joy for painting, but I got a solid art training and so it had its value.”
She continued, “Years later, after a decade of becoming a graphic designer, I returned to painting with the move to Connecticut. There I finally felt free to shed all the ‘art teaching voices’ and make work that expressed more of my ‘inner reality.’ I wanted to make female figures and so started with simple collage and eventually moved over to acrylic on canvas and still later found a desire to pull the figure out of the picture plane and make a stand-alone silhouette.”
Mailer credits her husband with helping her figure out any problems that come up with her work and its installation.
“Peter has been my number one everything! He helps me in every way. A gatekeeper and a sounding board and a smart problem solver and a talented musician in his own right. And a really good guy.”
Art has been a support throughout her life.
“Painting keeps me glued together,” she reflected.
Mailer will take part in a panel discussion at Hunt Library, “The Business of Art,” on Sept. 24 at 5:30 p.m., along with artists Robert Cronin, Janet Andre Block and Jason Losh. The discussion will be moderated by Compass editor, artist and musician Natalia Zukerman.
To see more of Mailer’s work, visit daniellemailer.com.
