Russ D’Anna

Russ D‘Anna was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in neighboring Independence. After high school, he enlisted in the US Army Special Forces. Upon finishing his three-year tour in Germany, he enrolled in the University of Kansas, where he earned his BA and MS in Fine Arts. He married in his last year of school and he and his wife, Dorothy, moved to New York City, where they have lived ever since. Hired by Scholastic, one of the country’s largest publishing houses, he serves as corporate creative director and is a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts.

He has won numerous awards, including those from the New York Art Directors Club, the Los Angeles Art Directors Club, the American Institute of Graphic Artists, the Society of Illustrators, the Golden Phoenix, and the Mead Library of Ideas, among many others. D‘Anna‘s latest exhibition, NYNY, was held in Kansas City at the Vivilore Gallery. This successful show will be followed by another there in the spring of 2014. It will exhibit more than thirty paintings.