Thoughts
& Rememberances of
Dan
His art, his life, his gifts to us.
If you have some of Dan's writings or more of Dan's works not pictured on this website (or a better foto than I used herein), PLEASE photograph/email copy(s) to me. I will continue expanding Dan's galleries as new examples come in. If you can't scan or digitize what you have--email me and I'll send you my snailmail address. Thanx
The History of DanHillen.com
This website was originally commissioned by Dan in March 2003 to promote his business: SiOtwoStainedGlassArt. The site's coloration and organization were his ideas, "...If possible in red, green, white and black background. I would also like all of the background in black with white texts..." Dan always thought WAYOUTside the box.
As one his computer literate friends, but NOT as an artist (let alone a creative genius like Dan), I poured myself into the task before timidly submitting the first draft. I admit a lot of relief when he wrote back:
"ALLEN,
I want to thank you for helping me out. You can count on an original Hillen
for your efforts...
LOVE THE BACKGROUND AND ALL THAT YOU ARE DOING...! --PADRE"
[He liked it! He
actually liked it!] From that point on, I redoubled my efforts. It took
hundreds of hours to digitize slides of his works, scan photos/pamphlets/Stained
Glass Art magazine, get additional pictures taken (thanx to David
Waling--my partner & Dan's lifelong Friend), crop and optimize the
pix, build animated gifs, create layouts for so many subpages, etc., etc.
Enough boring technical detail. Lets jump forward (backward?) to last
July.
The website was essentially finished [in "beta testing" as we
geeks say], awaiting Dan's finalization when he passed away. I
know he saw it; he must have, as it was hidden up on the internet for
his on-line review and I'd also mailed him a hard copy on CD-ROM two weeks
before... I just hope the final version pleased
him as much as the drafts had. Because the site was done, David was able
to bring it with him to Montana when attending Dan's funeral and share
it from his laptop with those interested.
I thank Dan's family for authorizing posting DanHillen.com on the internet so it gets officially listed in the various search engines. This may be the single, largest Dan Hillen exhibition ever assembled, albeit in cyber-gallery form. The reason this website isn't called SiOtwoStainedGlassArt.com (as he originally requested) is, as webmaster, I'd been lobbying him to choose a domain-name people could remember (let alone type!). Not withstanding he hadn't given in to my arguments, this isn't that corporate site in any case. That dispute is mute. Rather, I've recrafted Dan's pages, transforming them these last few weeks--when I could bring myself to change things.
I hope others email me many, many webpages of rememberances, photos, and Dan quotations to post here. Meanwhile, I appologize for this website history. I just hope it encourages others to share memories of quixotic Dan who oft described himself as,
"Man of God. Man of Glass. Manicotti."
Allen
Chamberlin
Aug. '03 - Sacramento, CA