About Danny

I was born in London, which we left when I was four. We moved briefly to Pittsburgh, Pa. then to Canberra, Australia. When I was nine, I went to live with my grandparents in Lahore, Pakistan. Next we went to a kibbutz in Israel then moved to a small town called Kfar Saba. As the Yom Kippur War broke out, we relocated to Brooklyn where I went to a Quaker high school. I was editor of the school paper and organized a Marxist study circle. I graduated from Princeton University, summa cum laude, with a degree in Politics. It was my 21st school.
When I was eleven, I began my first job – assisting the vet at the local slaughterhouse. I’ve worked in a record store, in one of New York’s finest restaurants, and my congressman’s office. I was a White House intern (Jimmy Carter lusted for me only in his heart) and a McDonalds’ fry cook. I have also worked in a half dozen advertising agencies, and illustrated books, newspapers, and magazines. I am currently Managing Partner, Executive Creative Director of McGarryBowen.
I live in Greenwich Village, New York  with my son, Jack Tea, and our miniature long-haired dachshunds, Joe and Tim.
I started drawing in earnest when I was in my mid thirties and, once I got nerve up, hit the streets of my hometown, New York City, and started to draw buildings and people and animals and hot dog stands. I always work in a bound book, always in ink (dip pen), often in watercolor, occasionally in marker or pencil.
My son, Jack — now 16 — loves to draw too, and we go out on sketchcrawls with old pals like Tommy Kane. We travel to different neighborhoods and perch on our foldings stools and record the City. Over the past decade, I have filled fifty or so books with drawings and little written captions and anecdotes and the practice has transformed my life.
I have travelled the world, met lots of other people who either draw or would like to, and had adventures galore — all thanks to drawing what I encounter in a little book.
I have published a handful of books, several about drawing and creativity. One, “Everyday Matters” was a memoir of how I learned to draw after my wife had a serious accident (she was run over by the #1 subway train which broke her back). The book seems to have caught on with a lot of people and I have been asked to write a couple more about illustrated journaling: “The Creative License” and most recently, “An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration From The Private Sketchbooks Of Artists, Illustrators And Designers.” The latter book led me to fulfill my dream of gathering the work of all the artists I admire most, people like Robert Crumb and Chris Ware and James Jean and many others, and then sitting down for a chat about my favorite subject, recording one’s life with drawings in a book. It was an amazing experience and I like to think the book reflects it.