YELLOW
Dan Crane, 2026
"Old things find new life in the compositions I saw in the Little Italy studio. The vintage top, books, and old burned CDs Crane had brought in were littered about as if the space had become like a temporary thrift store."
- Charles Weak. "Written in conjunction with Dan Crane's 2026 Maple St. Construct exhibition, YELLOW." September 2026.
If you are on social media and even tangentially connected to the do-it-yourself arts community in Omaha, you have probably come across Dan Crane, or @Diego4twondo on Instagram. His technicolor paintings, posters, and merch began to saturate my feed shortly after moving back to Omaha in 2025, however I had not had an opportunity to talk to Crane until earlier this summer when I visited him in Maple St. Construct’s studio.
Crane welcomed me to Maple St. Construct's Little Italy visiting artist studio with a quick tour of the grounds, some banter about the rapidly changing end of the summer midwestern weather, and questions about my background. It felt like the same kind of playful, frenetic energy that bears out in his work, which is a host of different mediums, compositions, iconography that manage to feel coherent through Crane’s trademark brand of irreverence and dedication to a particular saturation of “Crayola” colors. Among the forms Crane’s work has taken are hard line drawings, swoopy brush strokes reminiscent of MS Paint, felted compositions that portray well-known pop culture icons like Cookie Monster or racing videogames.
Dan Crane, 2026
"Old things find new life in the compositions I saw in the Little Italy studio. The vintage top, books, and old burned CDs Crane had brought in were littered about as if the space had become like a temporary thrift store."
- Charles Weak. "Written in conjunction with Dan Crane's 2026 Maple St. Construct exhibition, YELLOW." September 2026.
If you are on social media and even tangentially connected to the do-it-yourself arts community in Omaha, you have probably come across Dan Crane, or @Diego4twondo on Instagram. His technicolor paintings, posters, and merch began to saturate my feed shortly after moving back to Omaha in 2025, however I had not had an opportunity to talk to Crane until earlier this summer when I visited him in Maple St. Construct’s studio.
Crane welcomed me to Maple St. Construct's Little Italy visiting artist studio with a quick tour of the grounds, some banter about the rapidly changing end of the summer midwestern weather, and questions about my background. It felt like the same kind of playful, frenetic energy that bears out in his work, which is a host of different mediums, compositions, iconography that manage to feel coherent through Crane’s trademark brand of irreverence and dedication to a particular saturation of “Crayola” colors. Among the forms Crane’s work has taken are hard line drawings, swoopy brush strokes reminiscent of MS Paint, felted compositions that portray well-known pop culture icons like Cookie Monster or racing videogames.
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Images Courtesy of Dan Crane.
In whatever incarnation Dan’s work takes, there’s a balance you feel him drawing between whimsy and rigor, between recognizable (sometimes beloved) imagery of yesteryear and abstract color and form. In between the preciousness and preciseness, Crane has found a productive space to reflect on what it means to reuse materials (vintage fabrics scrapped from estate sales), but also what it means to repurpose iconography of beloved pop culture paraphernalia, which Crane often describes as “family”. These icons are things we grow up with, that we celebrate, but notably that change with us as we grow older. This evolution is born out in Crane’s work, as an artist who has been practicing for nearly two decades; prone to picking up compositions he began years prior.
As I entered his temporary studio space, I noticed it was littered with artsy detritus. Not only were there works in progress, but also bits and bobs from estate sales and junk stores that Crane has collected over the years. A series of plastic masks lay in a row along the ground near the back wall of the studio. Antique toys from the 1940s sit next to small hard edge painting studies on a little desk across the other side of the room. A large portrait of an orange and yellow grinning face, set against a field of blue flowers and paisley stares back at me as Dan motioned to one of a couple canvas butterfly chairs where we will sit and talk about where all of this colorful exuberance comes from. It might have something to do with the color yellow, maybe.
As we talked about his upcoming show, Crane I and discussed themes that have been consistently reappearing in his work over the years: Killing Preciousness, Doomed Materials, Pop Culture Iconography giving observers an entry into art, loving MS Paint and Photoshop Squiggles, and how to Do-it-Yourself and Do-the-Right-Thing.
MS Squiggles
As previously mentioned, Crane has been mulling over these vivid compositions for a couple decades now. Crane graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2009, before moving back to Omaha to start working as an artist. He has spent his time in Omaha connecting with organizations like the Union for Contemporary Art (founded by Brigitte McQueen), hosting art shows at the Joslyn Castle and now Maple St. Construct as well as helping run Project Project in south Omaha with a cohort of other DIY artist folks; Ella Weber, Phil Smith, Amber Eve Anderson, Josh Sender, and Carlie Waganer.
As I entered his temporary studio space, I noticed it was littered with artsy detritus. Not only were there works in progress, but also bits and bobs from estate sales and junk stores that Crane has collected over the years. A series of plastic masks lay in a row along the ground near the back wall of the studio. Antique toys from the 1940s sit next to small hard edge painting studies on a little desk across the other side of the room. A large portrait of an orange and yellow grinning face, set against a field of blue flowers and paisley stares back at me as Dan motioned to one of a couple canvas butterfly chairs where we will sit and talk about where all of this colorful exuberance comes from. It might have something to do with the color yellow, maybe.
As we talked about his upcoming show, Crane I and discussed themes that have been consistently reappearing in his work over the years: Killing Preciousness, Doomed Materials, Pop Culture Iconography giving observers an entry into art, loving MS Paint and Photoshop Squiggles, and how to Do-it-Yourself and Do-the-Right-Thing.
MS Squiggles
As previously mentioned, Crane has been mulling over these vivid compositions for a couple decades now. Crane graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2009, before moving back to Omaha to start working as an artist. He has spent his time in Omaha connecting with organizations like the Union for Contemporary Art (founded by Brigitte McQueen), hosting art shows at the Joslyn Castle and now Maple St. Construct as well as helping run Project Project in south Omaha with a cohort of other DIY artist folks; Ella Weber, Phil Smith, Amber Eve Anderson, Josh Sender, and Carlie Waganer.
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Images Courtesy of Dan Crane.
The research I did on Crane prior to visiting him in studio led me to a summer 2016 Omaha Magazine article about Crane with images depicting fields of brush strokes, reminiscent of a lazily swiped Photoshop brush or early MS Paint art which to me evoked post-digital art by artists like Laura Owens or Artie Vierkant. In the photos for the article, Crane sits amongst his technicolor cacophonies looking up intently into the middle distance, posturing as a visionary thinker amongst his silly Photoshop color gradients. It is in this subtle tension that the dead-serious playfulness of Crane’s work (and perhaps the joke he is trying to make) shines. He understands that silliness requires a little solemnity if it is going to have maximum effect.
Pop Culture as Entry Point & Family
The work I saw Crane was producing for the Maple St. Construct show in October was quite a bit different from the gradients and lazy brush strokes of the MS Paint compositions that were present for the Omaha Magazine article. The paintings littering Crane's desk and lining the back wall of the studio were a series of meticulously edged color compositions with subtle references to Americana, like scalloped awnings, or stars that felt borrowed from Captain America’s shield.
These familiar icons form a language in Crane’s work, borrowed from beloved items he collected through traveling (visiting estate sales or junk stores) or through reflecting on pop culture from childhood. I asked Crane about the language of references he has been building in his practice, where he finds them, and he recounted a story for me about visiting the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio:
Pop Culture as Entry Point & Family
The work I saw Crane was producing for the Maple St. Construct show in October was quite a bit different from the gradients and lazy brush strokes of the MS Paint compositions that were present for the Omaha Magazine article. The paintings littering Crane's desk and lining the back wall of the studio were a series of meticulously edged color compositions with subtle references to Americana, like scalloped awnings, or stars that felt borrowed from Captain America’s shield.
These familiar icons form a language in Crane’s work, borrowed from beloved items he collected through traveling (visiting estate sales or junk stores) or through reflecting on pop culture from childhood. I asked Crane about the language of references he has been building in his practice, where he finds them, and he recounted a story for me about visiting the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio:
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"Good God, if you want to see image reappropriation and recycling. Also this whole other language being made and created for insignias, for bomber jackets and the sides of planes and things. I would be lying if I said I was not thinking about all of the iconography and symbols and that has been at least on the back burner while I am making these. The star with the red dot in the blue circle is literally the early 1900s official aircraft national insignia.” |
Everyone engages with some form of subconscious nostalgic collecting of iconography or symbols. Crane’s work engages with this collective unconscious archive of symbols by playing with the nature of those symbols. If Cookie Monster provides someone an entry point to a piece of art, abstracting or obfuscating the image of Cookie Monster challenges an observer to examine their relationship with the symbol itself. When we spoke, Crane was insistent that these symbols are like family to him. Like family, the complex relationships we form with icons are bound to evolve over time, to mature.
Killing Preciousness
As I sat with Crane, talking about this work, it occurred to me that the floral painting covered in oranges and blues that was sitting against the back wall was actually a portrait of Freddy Krueger painted on top of a piece of sourced vintage fabric. Krueger's face, rendered with his trademark toothy malevolent grin, did not hold the ominous weight it usually did as it sat against the field of blue paisley and indigo floral patterns that wrapped the canvas.
Killing Preciousness
As I sat with Crane, talking about this work, it occurred to me that the floral painting covered in oranges and blues that was sitting against the back wall was actually a portrait of Freddy Krueger painted on top of a piece of sourced vintage fabric. Krueger's face, rendered with his trademark toothy malevolent grin, did not hold the ominous weight it usually did as it sat against the field of blue paisley and indigo floral patterns that wrapped the canvas.
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Images Courtesy of Dan Crane.
Crane informed me that the fabric that was used to create the canvas once wrapped a reupholstered heirloom chair that had been passed down to Crane’s wife from her mother. This makes the portrait as much about home decor preferences as it is a portrait of a 1990s slasher villain mashed with a self-portrait of Crane (the painting is a re-rendering of Krueger blended with Crane's facial features. Taking each of these separate items on their own, (the antique chair, the beloved horror villain, Crane himself) might elicit a degree of preciousness. When all three are mashed together, the resulting composition kills the preciousness of the individual symbol to make way for something new and strange.
Seminal to Crane’s kit-bashing strategy is Crane's willingness to pick up art he started working on decades prior, or to collect junk to eventually repurpose. Hoarding is, perhaps somewhat unfortunately for Crane, an integral part of the practice. Crane talked with me about the experience of working on art over the course of a decade, putting work down to pick it up ten years later:
Seminal to Crane’s kit-bashing strategy is Crane's willingness to pick up art he started working on decades prior, or to collect junk to eventually repurpose. Hoarding is, perhaps somewhat unfortunately for Crane, an integral part of the practice. Crane talked with me about the experience of working on art over the course of a decade, putting work down to pick it up ten years later:
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“It is borderline hoard-y, but it is also kind of fun. These ten-year gaps are both an exercise in killing the preciousness of something, but also, this weird maddening revisiting of the past. I think each decision getting made on an old piece is still just an attempt to navigate it. I am not so proud that I am going to pretend like I know what all of this means, but I love wallowing in the question it all.” |
Doom Materials as Allegories for death
Old things find new life in the compositions I saw in the Little Italy studio. The vintage top, books, and old burned CDs Crane had brought in were littered about as if the space had become like a temporary thrift store.
Most Nebraskans will have visited one of these vintage stores at some point. We are all familiar with the experience of wandering through cluttered aisles and seeing a childhood object or some obscure piece of cultural merchandise that you recognize with tenuous familiarity. There is a certain joy to returning to these familiar objects years after being introduced to them, with a different perspective on the world.
Crane calls these objects “Doomed Materials”, not because he has consigned them to oblivion but because collectively, we have abandoned these perfectly good objects. Crane’s thesis seems to be that there is plenty of meaning and memories still bound up with these forgotten objects:
Old things find new life in the compositions I saw in the Little Italy studio. The vintage top, books, and old burned CDs Crane had brought in were littered about as if the space had become like a temporary thrift store.
Most Nebraskans will have visited one of these vintage stores at some point. We are all familiar with the experience of wandering through cluttered aisles and seeing a childhood object or some obscure piece of cultural merchandise that you recognize with tenuous familiarity. There is a certain joy to returning to these familiar objects years after being introduced to them, with a different perspective on the world.
Crane calls these objects “Doomed Materials”, not because he has consigned them to oblivion but because collectively, we have abandoned these perfectly good objects. Crane’s thesis seems to be that there is plenty of meaning and memories still bound up with these forgotten objects:
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“God, you should see my studio at my house. I have got a bookshelf and sitting on top of it is an impressive pile that when people look at it they usually assume it, was meticulously assembled and fastened together, but it is a loose, gravity-held, object hoard that is ready to avalanche like a Jenga tower at any moment. VHS tapes pulled from a dumpster, a Garfield landline phone, a dehydrated/tattooed orange, a cat vase, a bong made by a ceramicist friend, plastic yellow chain, Taz keychains, etc.” |
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Images Courtesy of Dan Crane.
Crane, now in his late 30s, also spoke candidly about the connection these Doom Materials have to family members passing away and death:
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“This also comes with having family members start to die. For whatever reason, I inherit all of my relatives' old magazines. A lot of old Playboys and Hustlers, but also a lot of Life magazines and family photos. I find myself with a lot of dead people’s stuff, mixed in with stuff people just needed to get rid of.” |
Do-It-Yourself, Do-The-Right-Thing
Crane and I talked for about an hour during my visit. As the sun started to wane, setting over the far side of the little house as we sink farther into our canvas chairs. I asked Crane about the importance of preciousness of the references he uses in his work and his relationship to the Omaha art scene, and he responded with an anecdote that has stuck with me:
Crane and I talked for about an hour during my visit. As the sun started to wane, setting over the far side of the little house as we sink farther into our canvas chairs. I asked Crane about the importance of preciousness of the references he uses in his work and his relationship to the Omaha art scene, and he responded with an anecdote that has stuck with me:
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“My wife and I went to Athens, Greece in February. There was a souvlaki joint around the corner from our Airbnb that was the skewer joint for the Panathinaikos Ultras, which is that neighborhood's football club. They had been there for forty years, literally making the same food for the same drunk football fans, you know? And sometimes the team and the coaches kind of hang out and smoke cigarettes and there are regulars who just walk in, grab a bottle of wine from the fridge, pour it into their Sprite can and wave and walk out. There is something that just makes sense for me working-class-wise, but also knowing that there is something that you have to offer your community. Aspirationally, one day there is a universe where I figure out my souvlaki. Time is ticking, but I do not mind putting in the hours.” |
The irreverence of Crane’s art gives cover to the other function that persistently working in DIY art spaces for two decades serves: helping foster the arts community in Omaha. Organizing, advocating for art should be playful, and we should find precious moments in the constant evolution of artist communities in Omaha. There is meaning bound up in all of these connections, whether they be: the people you meet while visiting Maple St. Construct on October 2nd, the relationship between horror icons and vintage floral patterns, or even the relationship between the color yellow and the smell of excellently prepared souvlaki. Pop culture might be the entry point, but meaningful (albeit sometimes unlikely) connections are the family we make along the way.
Written in conjunction with Dan Crane's 2026 Maple St. Construct exhibition, YELLOW.
Article by Charles Weak.
Written in conjunction with Dan Crane's 2026 Maple St. Construct exhibition, YELLOW.
Article by Charles Weak.
Images Courtesy of Dan Crane.
About the Artist:
Dan Crane is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Omaha, Nebraska. In 2009, Crane earned his BFA in Printmaking from the Kansas City Art Institute. Since then, he has participated in solo and group exhibitions in and around the Midwest. Crane has been offered fellowship, grant, and collaboration opportunities from many organizations, including The Union for Contemporary Art, The Joslyn Art Museum, The University of Nebraska in Omaha, Kent Bellows Studio, Kaneko, Film Streams, Amplify Arts, and The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts.
www.instagram.com/diego4twondo
Dan Crane is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Omaha, Nebraska. In 2009, Crane earned his BFA in Printmaking from the Kansas City Art Institute. Since then, he has participated in solo and group exhibitions in and around the Midwest. Crane has been offered fellowship, grant, and collaboration opportunities from many organizations, including The Union for Contemporary Art, The Joslyn Art Museum, The University of Nebraska in Omaha, Kent Bellows Studio, Kaneko, Film Streams, Amplify Arts, and The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts.
www.instagram.com/diego4twondo