Biography

Dan Byrne spent most of his professional life in Washington, DC where he worked as a licensed clinician for the United States Public Health Service, United States Department of Justice, Government of the District of Columbia Department of Behavioral Health, and private and non-profit clinical and academic organizations. He maintained a psychotherapy private practice for twenty-five years.

Early in his career, he understood the diagnostic and therapeutic benefits of art therapy with children and adults who were receiving care in psychiatric facilities. Additionally, he saw the benefits of art projects to facilitate processing and the remediation of traumatic events experienced by people receiving behavioral health care.

Dan started experimenting with oils in 2017 and finally had the time to further his painting explorations after he retired (for the last time) in 2023. He is fascinated by color, often mixing the oils and producing his own custom colors. He is also intrigued by the interplay of colors in textured paintings.

Dan is grateful to Rick Wetzler, his partner, for providing the architecture, discipline, and organization to produce these paintings for this exhibit as well as his unflagging support. He is also grateful to his son, Bockman, initially dismissive of his early works, who said, “Now that one, I like.”

Dan’s work can be seen at the AO Fine Arts Gallery in Wilton Manors, Florida.