Daniel Ezra Philon

Medium: Painting

Location: TBD

As a child, I spent hours sketching on my mother’s kitchen floor in Alabama while she whispered, “One day, you will be an artist.”” I didn’t listen — not then. Life took me through Miles College, UAB, and the University of Maryland, where I earned my MBA. For fifteen years, Human Resources was my world. But on January 20, 2017, at age 39, I walked into the High Museum of Art for the first time — and everything changed.

Mid-sketching session, a warm sensation washed over me. Tears fell uncontrollably as my hand moved across the page in a trance I couldn’t — and didn’t want to — stop. I call it my artistic awakening.

That night, I went home and painted until 4 a.m. My work draws from life’s deepest joys and darkest traumas. I don’t have art degrees — I have living. Welcome to my second childhood.