Fall — 2007

Carla Danes

Printmaking

“I love this class! It’s only $100, and we have a beautiful facility to work in. And all of us are really determined and pleased to be there.”

In the life of an artist, it’s not unusual to find that change is the only constant. And this has certainly been true for Carla Danes. “We lived in our SoHo loft in New York City, where I was a textile designer and we raised two kids,” says the woman who holds two Master’s degrees. But one of those kids would propel Carla all the way to Hollywood. The name of that kid? That would be Claire Danes.

“It was for Claire’s career that I decided to come out here,” Carla says of her famous daughter, who’s starred in Terminator 3 and Romeo and Juliet. “But it’s not good to be following your kid around, and being a ‘stage mother’ is tough.” So when the Hollywood stuff got to be a little too much for her, Carla went back into what she knows best: the fine arts. “I taught art in prisons, at the Boys and Girls Club, and for a number of nonprofits,” she says. “But it’s tough being an itinerant teacher.” But luckily, Carla’s talents have lately been finding their audience. “I had a show of my sculpture in Mexico City in October, and another in LA, in Chinatown, in the spring,” she says with genuine modesty. And it was because of these sculptures that Carla made her away to John Greco’s classroom at SMC.

“Oh! John is just a wonderful teacher!” says Carla. “I take his Printmaking class because I want to document my sculptures in this way. And John is very direct and thorough in the way he teaches. He works right along with us as we make our plates, and it’s all very hands on. SMC is the only place around where you can learn these techniques. I love being at this campus,” she continues. “And I don’t ever want to stop learning here.”

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