​Creative Design by Carren

YOUNG ADULT NOVELS, CUSTOM DESIGNS, ARTWORK & ILLUSTRATION

About My Work

My name is Carren McDaniel and I am the artist who created all of the artwork on this site. I live in Fresno, California where I recently moved into a wonderful new home complete with my own indoor art studio/workshop.  I am a mother of 3 and a grandmother of 4. I have been an artist for as long as I can remember-I have been working in the Art field for over 40 years. I began in drawing and painting. My favorite medium was oil paint and pen and ink sketches. I have always loved working with children, combine that with my love of drawing and writing and illustrating children’s books was a natural fit. “Fresh Air Friends” is my first book and I have also published Ciera, the Burping Cat, “The Little Yellow Puppy” and "Mama Crush and her Kittens" and, most recently, "Benjamin's Best Bully Buddy. The last three are about animal rescue; I am working on more books all the time.

I discovered ACT, an animal rescue organization, in 2010 and I have been strongly involved with them ever since. In 2012 ACT was gifted a 12,000 sq.' building that had been used as a livestock lab by UC Davis. It had been closed for three years and was a sad, dark place. Brenda Mitchell, ACT's president allowed me to paint a Rainbow Bridge on their wall to commemorate pets who have past. I have been lucky enough to continue painting murals there. Go to my Murals page to see some of them.
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Over the years I have dabbled in many mediums. I have been sewing since I was 13 and I have created many patterns and quilts. In college I discovered clay. As a child I spent many hours with modeling clay, creating my own little world filled with animals of all kinds. In college I wanted to make my mother a porcelain doll so I took a class on sculpture. I loved this medium because you could do so many different things with sculpture clay. I then took pottery classes. I learned to throw pots (on a pottery wheel) and to hand build pieces. I also enjoyed this new challenge, but I discovered that I most enjoyed the finishing step, the firing of the piece to bring out the beautiful colors of the glazes. Soon I was creating my own glaze colors, trying to achieve a particular effect of one glaze firing to 2 different colors. It was fun, but the process to finally get to the "color" phase was long. Then I discovered stained glass. Now the colors are immediate and I can use all my other talents to create a unique finished piece of art. The drawing, pattern making, sewing and the clay process all come together in my stained glass work.