Daniel Embree creates paintings and original prints that reflect his fascination with the human body. Through visual cues and expressive body gestures, his figures speak to the viewer and convey emotion.

Though he is an emerging artist in New England, Embree's pursuits have taken him from his home in Chicago to Utah and Los Angeles before bringing him to Boston, Massachusetts. Embree was raised in a conservative Mormon home in Chicago's northern suburbs. His parents have always encouraged his love of art.

"My mom taught me to be creative. I didn't play with ninja turtle action figures as a kid," said Embree, "I made my own action figures out of clay—lizards, dragons, animals, mermaids, and giant insects. And my parents always praised my art. No matter what I was working on, it was always met with encouragement."

By the time he was eight he was taking classes at the Art Institute of Chicago with students three times his age. Exposure to great art and information about artists at the Art Institute fueled his own aspirations.

In the northern suburbs, Embree was also fortunate to have access to one of the best art programs in the region; his high school had eight art teachers. Upon graduating, he had a portfolio that showed breadth, depth, and consistency. Art schools across the country were competing for his attention.

"I had decided I was going to an art school in Boston," Embree recalls, "My dad took me to Boston and there was a school there that really wanted me. I fell in love with the city instantly. That was where I wanted to live."

But that year the Massachusetts Supreme Court legalized gay marriage. "It scared me," said Daniel, "At that time I was desperately trying to hide the fact that I was gay myself." Embree was dedicated to the Mormon Church. "I didn’t just want to be an artist, I wanted to be a Mormon artist. I had grown up with lots of exposure to Mormon art, and my mom was always telling me that I could create better Mormon art—I every intent to do just that."

And that meant going west. Seeking to escape his sexuality, Embree sought reparative therapy at Brigham Young University. He turned down the other art schools and headed to Utah, where he studied art for a year before leaving to serve as a full time missionary. He left in 2005 to spend two years in Los Angeles preaching the gospel. Even though he was passionately invested into the Church, Embree brought his art to his ministry. He designed fliers and posters and used drawings in his lessons to inspire people to improve their lives and ultimately join the Mormon faith. Yet the real significance of his mission wasin learning to love himself for who he really was.

"For the first time in my life, I felt like a good person on the inside instead of just the outside. I was doing good things for people and I was good at it. I wasn’t the monster I had secretly believed I was because I was gay."

When he returned to Utah in 2007 to resume his studies, Embree came to terms with his sexuality and came out of the closet. His art, which had always been very spiritual, now began to explore his spirituality in the context of his sexuality. He made intaglio prints of nude figures shrouded in darkness, and he made paintings that represented what life would be like without someone to love.

At this time he studied artists like Trevor Southey, who also used the human figure to symbolically depict themes reconciling Mormonism and homosexuality. Embree’s piece "Experiencing the Divine" reflects these influences and was exhibited at the Springville Museum of Art in 2008 as part of their 23^rdAnnual Religious and Spiritual Art of Utah Show.

In 2009, Embree sought to broaden his scope and address the bigger issues inherent in his work. "I realized that really I was interested in how people treat each other," he wrote in an artist statement, "I wanted to call attention to both our everyday interactions and how we address difficult situations."

He began a series of works about dialog that focused on body language, and he started to work in monotype, which proved to be an ideal medium for the series. The process entails rolling ink onto plexi-glass and then manipulating it before printing the remaining image onto paper. He rolls each color of ink individually and repeats the subtractive process with each color. The layers of ink stack on top of each other to create the final image. Because the layers don’t always line up perfectly, the figures seem to quiver, as if they are moving. The subtractive process of wiping the ink is also very gestural, and contributes to a sense of movement in the art.

One of the works from this series was chosen to represent Utah and the process of monotype in the 50 Artists 50 States 50 Mediums exhibit at the Eclipse Gallery in Algoma, Wisconsin during the fall of 2009. In December 2009, Embree had his first solo exhibition in the BF Larsen Gallery at BYU. The show, "Dialog," featured numerous original works on paper from this series. Embree received high marks for the quality and concept of his work, and the overall presentation of the exhibit. He graduated from BYU with a BFA in Studio Art.

2010 brought Daniel Embree to Boston, Massachusetts where he now lives making art and drawing inspiration from his new surroundings.