Danae Bennett-Miller
Danae Bennett-Miller’s one-of-a-kind bronze sculptures are part of the cultural landscape in Bend. These sculptures of birds, deer, elk, horses, chickens and more are all made from multiple pieces of flowed wax that has an organic quality interpreting the animals energy. From her studio on her ranch in Tumalo, Oregon she also makes monoprints using her own press. Besides monoprints that are classicly printed on paper and framed behind glass, she sometimes collages torn monoprints onto cradled board. Danae then pours layers of resin over the art as she builds up the surface with more texture and line between each layer of resin.
To create her sculptures Danae pours hot wax out as sheets. As wax flows it creates beautifully organic textures. With a plan in mind, she then forms the slabs of wax into a model, fabricating each sculpture from many pieces of the flowed wax. A foundry translates the shapes into bronze using the lost wax process, and Danae adds the patina herself. She also adds cast glass to many of her sculptures, bringing the added element of translucence to her work. Many of Danae’s sculptures are tabletop size which make acquiring sculpture possible for all levels of collectors.
Besides sculptures for residential and corporate placement, Danae has had many public sculpture commissions. These include roundabout art of a horse on Greenwood Ave. in Bend, Oregon; herons in a pocket park at the end of Minnesota Street in downtown Bend and a heron sculpture in downtown Sisters, Oregon. The most ambitious of her public art installations is a tableau of life-size elk and pronghorn bronze sculptures with towering basalt rocks, in the only roundabout in Sisters, Oregon. This roundabout is also the only one on a state highway in Oregon.
Danae raises chickens and works in her studio on the ranch she runs with her husband in Tumalo, Oregon.