ALUMNUS REMEMBERED
Dear Editor:
Ryan Nelson’s OP/ED about Daniel Price was a beautifulpiece. And while words cannot measure the worth of a man, norhis talents, Ryan certainly came close. What does speakvolumes about Daniel is his art.
His political cartoons were a breath of fresh air eachday. They were introspective, bold, and most importantly,unapologetic in their truthfulness. But as paper can offeronly one dimension, they are only one dimension of who he was.
Daniel graduated from SMU with his Bachelor of Fine Arts. He was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity. And if you askaround you will find that he was funny, sociable, well liked, andyet, completely unpretentious. If you didn’t know hisname, you never would have guessed that this seemingly average SMUfraternity guy was the one whose satire you looked forward toalmost as much (if not more than) the crossword puzzle eachmorning. He helped us all laugh at ourselves.
Probably because he transferred in, he had more perspectivelooking at the SMU microcosm than we could muster ourselves.
He was an artist, and I was lucky enough to have stumbled uponhis work. It is not what you would have anticipated – it israw, alive and serious in nature. He painted what he knew,what he loved. As a native of New Orleans, Mardi Gras washard to escape. His collection of Mardi Gras Indians are aglimpse at his other dimensions – full of color and detail, quietand boisterous at once – as are his other works. His belovedSarah, his dog, his space – even something as seemingly mundane ashis studio, came to life on his canvas. You can smell the oilpaint; feel the sun beating in through the windows. You arethere with him in that moment, stealing a piece of his world.
He will be missed. But luckily he leaves us his legacy inprint, on canvas, and for those lucky enough to know him, in wordsshared. He left us his whole; it is up to us to put thepieces together.
Please visit his on-line gallery:
http://www.thecanvasgallery.com/artist_Daniel_Price.html
Megan Elliot
SMU class of 1998