Dani D.

The Wood Wide Web (right)
Felt, wire, fishing line, and found natural beings
6’ X 3' 6”

Beauty in Nature's Bounty (left)
Naturally dyed fibers, ecoprinted fibers, biodegradable twine, and found natural beings
2' X 2' 8”
Credit: Dani D.Artist Bio

Dani Deal (she/her) is a graduating student and intern with an art therapy practice rooted in relationship with the natural world. She earned her Ecotherapy Certificate during her graduate studies and holds a BA in Art Therapy (2022) from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Dani currently offers individual and group eco-art therapy for children, teens, young adults, and families on a 60-acre nature-based outpatient mental health campus, drawing on more than a decade of experience in early childhood education, caregiving, and art education to support creative and developmental growth. She has previously facilitated art therapy at Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia and at Fora Health in Portland, Oregon, offering art experientials for adults in substance use treatment in residential, intensive outpatient, and outpatient settings.

In her personal art practice, Dani explores themes of place, memory, and connection through intuitive, mixed-material-driven processes. Working with natural pigments, fibers, and found objects, she creates in conversation with the land, trusting both art and nature as steady guides for healing, grounding, and authentic expression.

Artist Statement

Rooted in my relationship with the natural world, my work reflects the ways connection, memory, and place shape both my becoming an art therapist and my creative practice. The Wood Wide Web honors the people who have formed my personal ecosystem throughout this journey—my cohort, mentors, family, and friends—each represented as a hand-felted leaf on a branch salvaged during a nature walk. Together they form my mycorrhizal network, the steady underground system of care and reciprocity that has supported my growth. The suspended fallen leaves dedicated to those who have passed away or moved on acknowledge the complexity of change, grief, and the continued influence that lives within every relationship. I have not come into who I am today on my own; I owe that to each and every one of you and to the tender love, care, support, and resource sharing you have offered me.

Beauty in Nature’s Bounty carries this thread of reciprocity into my ongoing study of natural materials as collaborative partners. A frame built from moss- and lichen-covered sticks holds eight fabric samples dyed through natural pigment baths—some from my undergraduate eco-printing work, others newly created as experiments in this stage of my training. Each swatch reflects the playful, sensory, and process-driven spirit that guides both my art-making and the eco-art therapy I offer. Each session and each intervention invites me to loosen expectations, welcome the unknown, get my hands dirty, and honor the simple awe of showing up to the work. As I move into professional practice, these artworks remind me to stay curious, to trust the wisdom of the land, and to nurture the environments—human and ecological—that make authentic expression and healing possible.