Danny Hughes
Los Angeles Journal
Los Angeles Journal
September / 2006
A CALLING OF LOVE AND LIGHT
There is no manual on earth that can teach you how and no directions, which can be given to help you find your calling in life.
Written By: Sara Schlussel
Some people spend their whole lives on a treasure hunt for a way to feel complete and productive; sometimes never finding that perfect jewel. It took Danny Hughes thirty-five years.
Bouncing around between parents in Southern California and Oregon since he was a child and growing up attending a Hebrew school that never provided him with the spiritual answers he needed, Danny was on a quest for something that felt stable and fulfilling.
Spending time working in corporate America, as a musician and in the construction business, “I never found anything that felt like I was accomplishing my calling, my purpose in life.” Danny found himself in what he calls a “spiritual pit,” and he was unable of rescuing himself from the darkness that had taken over his soul, “but four years ago,” Danny explains, “an angel came into my life and just as quickly as she entered my world she disappeared.” The angel was an artist who taught Danny the art of silence, “a way to get quiet,” he elaborates, “to reach the depths of my soul, to find creativity.” After going through so much despair, “I was finally able to listen to someone and push away my fear.” Danny finally began believing in himself, in his dream of succeeding and finding what he had always been looking for.
After being given a mystical book entitled 72 Names of God¸ Danny felt a compelling urge to express the kabbalistic images he read about. According to Danny, “Kabbalah is not a dogma, rather it follows in the same tradition Judaism does, only Kabbalah explores a consciousness with an energy and light, an energy one can bring in to save the world. Kabbalah felt different than what I learned as a child. I felt more open and able.”
Beginning his creative process by layering a wood panel with collections of aged biblical texts from the 1800’s, then applying elements which cause a rust-like reaction and drawing the image using oil paint and finishing his masterpiece with a coat of resin as a sealant. With forty pieces complete, Danny has received an overwhelming response from the general public. “My images,” he describes, “cannot be understood by the rational mind, but instead by everyone’s soul. Light exists in everything; whether a cup of coffee, a vehicle, or a relationship. I am bringing art to people who can gain from its’ light and energy.”
Danny uses a metaphor of a cell phone to provide a better understanding of the energy within his paintings, “Everyone fundamentally understands how a cell phone works, what each button does, how when you dial a certain amount of numbers you end up calling ‘Joe’; well just like a cell phone, each painting has a particular energy that comes with it. Whether a viewer is looking for more health, prosperity, to smash one’s ego – my paintings bring that light and energy the viewer’s soul has been longing for.”
The title of each painting embodies the painting as a whole and the sequence, which has been illustrated upon each panel. Danny believes his paintings “illuminate one’s soul pushing away ego and darkness.”
Danny feels “that as children we are connected to a wonderment about life and the world that we live in. As we get older and are faced with the challenges that show up day to day, we become jaded and biter and loose touch with that wonderment that we once knew.
This childlike wonderment and awe that we loose is where creativity and fulfillment reside. The journey has been about re-connecting to that place.” Through Danny’s use of his creative soul, he has finally found “the only thing in life that has ever been for sure” – his artwork. Painting has put a resolve into Danny’s life as never known.
“Being able to touch people… to help give them back to themselves has the most fulfilling aspect of this journey. It is my wish that this work will inspire more souls to find ways to touch their world with love.”
Artwork by Danny Hughes can be found at
