Meet Colorado Springs artist and Air Force veteran Daniel Logan
A fresh coat of paint now covers the walls of the Fountain Creek Nature Center.
It’s a new mural, capturing local flora and fauna surrounding a winding river that flows across the walls.
The vibrant colors and geometric designs are the work of Colorado Springs artist Daniel Logan. It’s Logan’s second completed mural.
The new mural painted by Logan Daniel in the Fountain Creek Nature Center captures local flora and fauna and a winding river that flows across the walls. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
“My personal subject that I paint are landscapes and wildlife, and I guess it just kind of fit in with what they wanted,” he said. “I’m always up for learning new things, and so I had fun doing it.”
Colorado Springs artist Daniel Logan stands by his completed mural at Fountain Creek Nature Center.
As an Air Force veteran, it didn’t take long for Logan to jump-start his career in art — 48 hours, to be exact.
“I decided to go from something that I was prideful of to something that I love,” Logan said. “So two days later, after I cut out the Air Force, I started my first classes in art school at Rocky Mountain College of Art Design in Denver.”
After medically retiring from the Air Force in 2019, Logan graduated art school in 2022, becoming a full-time artist. His experience in the military held him to a higher standard, he said, encouraging his success as an artist.
“I’ve been blessed enough to have a lot of traction, but that has been because I’ve put a lot of work towards it,” he said.
“Century” by Daniel Logan.
“I have a lot of attention, a lot of opportunities, just based off of, I think, my military work ethic, because the thing is with being an entrepreneur is no one is telling you to get up, it’s time to go to work. You have to tell yourself and so that’s something that definitely was engraved in me with the military.”
His usual mediums are acrylic and charcoal, and his subject the natural world.
“I think I have just always been drawn to things that are beyond my control. You just go out and you see wildlife and they live there — I do nothing to influence that, and so these things are beautiful on their own accord,” he said.
“That fascinates me because it’s just this natural beauty that just exists in our world and we’re driving on highways, going to work and listening to podcasts and looking at our phones and not even seeing the stuff that exists right in front of our eyes naturally.”
It helps being surrounded by mountains, which has influenced his work.
“Balancing Rock” Daniel Logan.
Balancing Rock Daniel Logan
“Every single day I go outside. I look at the mountains and they’re always breathtaking,” he said. “Nature is something that I can never take for granted, even if I wanted to. So that’s what transpires in my art.”
Logan considers his artistic pursuit a self-serving endeavor, having been raised to see work as more of a chore than a vocation of passion. He recalled growing up learning that men must “do what you got to do to provide,” so turning to art was an unexpected change.
“After the military, it just took a lot out of me. With my experiences, I decided to do something for me for the first time in my life,” he said. “My paintings are selfish, because it’s the reflection of the beauty that I see in the world.”
Daniel Logan poses for a portrait on Friday, March 1, 2024, outside of the Fountain Creek Nature Center in Fountain, Colo. Logan, a Colorado Springs-based artist recently completed a mural inside the nature center. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
He learned a love of artwork from his father, who is an Army veteran.
“Before he joined the Army, he actually went to art school,” Logan said of his father. “So when he was home from the field, he was doing some form of art ‚ it didn’t matter if it was woodworking, stained glass, drawing, painting, so I’ve always had that influence.”
One of Logan’s most popular pieces, “Journey,” portrays a bear swimming, head peeking out of the water.
“Journey” by Daniel Logan.
While it can be hard to let pieces go, Logan considers himself a temporary home to his artwork.
“When it comes to my art, I’m a foster parent. So I love all of my paintings equally, but my job is to make sure that they go to a home that loves them,” he said.
Daniel Logan poses for a portrait on Friday, March 1, at the Fountain Creek Nature Center in Fountain, Colo. After retiring from a career in the United States Air Force, Logan got a degree from Rocky Mountain College of Art Design in Denver. “I decided to go from something that I was prideful of to something that I love,” he says. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
