Dana Lynn Graap  The Whole Shebang!

6/2/1972-1/25/2022

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Dana thought big and aspired to influence others. She accomplished this on numerous fronts.

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In 2008 Dana joined the Starlight team of artists. At that time her primary focus was ceramics. She presented her creations as being part of a series, which she would refer to as her “Fall Collection” or her “Holiday Collection”, etc.  She had very specific instructions about how her art should be handled, often leaving lengthy hand-written instructions to the teaching artists.

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Dana delighted the staff and other artists with her emphatic ways.  She not only emphasized her wishes, but she also underscored others’ opinions and feelings. She was an enthusiastic cheerleader for her peers and sometimes their mouthpiece if she felt their cause needed her support.

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At times Dana worked as the studio’s Town Crier. She would yell out to the art studio what Lunch Express, a traveling sandwich shop, was selling for the day. When Lunch Express went out of business and Starlight started its own snack shop, Dana assumed the role again of announcing the lunch offerings.  This performance always made everyone smile.

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Dana was an enthusiastic participant at Starlight; she was always up for a community outing. We are grateful for the pictures we have of her at many Buffalo landmarks: Canalside; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Burchfield-Penney Art Center; Parkside Candy; the Anderson Gallery; Indigo Gallery; Daily Planet Coffee Shop; the Broadway Market; the Downtown Library to name a few.  Beyond community outings, Dana took full advantage of what the Starlight Program offered.  Her collections of ceramic pieces and later large paintings, drawings and mixed media works were included in numerous group exhibitions at Starlight.

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2018 was a year of significant accomplishments for Dana. In May 2018 she was featured in our exhibition series, Side by Each where her large paintings were shown alongside the paintings of James Paulsen. But perhaps Dana’s crowning achievement was in November 2018 when her original play, Hot Rock Hotel was staged at Alleyway Theatre. The play, which she wrote with the support of Beth Geyer, Unique Theatre’s artistic director, is set in a Las Vegas hotel.  The play’s main character (whom Dana based on herself) owns the hotel.  Writing the script, Dana was fueled by her vision of her fellow Starlight artists in the roles. She conceived of them as an ex-stripper, a chef, a waitress, a police officer, and a football player to name a few.

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Dana’s imagination was vast. She pored over art history books and wrote and sketched steadily in her notebooks. She had an understanding of political power and the need to advocate for herself and others with disabilities. In a documentary about Dana, created by the Starlight staff with Squeaky Wheel in 2014, entitled The Whole Shebang, Dana tells the interviewer that people need to accept people with disabilities, “don’t be afraid of us, talk to us”. 

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Dana’s small shoes and big personality will live on at Starlight Studio. Her laugh, her smile, her notebooks chock full of pencil drawings and writings, her abundance of clay creations, and her huge paintings will remain etched in our memories.

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To honor Dana Graap and her singular vision, Starlight will host an event this spring where we will view The Whole Shebang, her animation, The Obamas and read the Hot Rock Hotel. Stay tuned for a date and time. In the meantime, “don’t be afraid of us” and please do “talk to us”.