"One of the most exciting artists to come along in decades. Danielle curates dreamscapes of ocean magic, feminine beauty, and emotions that awakens our inner child imaginations. "
Danielle Zirkelbach was born in New Haven Connecticut. Father, Richard Zirkelbach, and older brother, Matthew Zirkelbach, raised her. They moved around the east coast until they settled in a little town, Flagler Beach of Florida. Danielle’s father enrolled Danielle and her brother into a series of athletics, including BMX bike racing, soccer, swimming, cross country, and several others.
Danielle quickly became a soccer standout earning several honors that allowed her to pursue an athletic careers playing for some of Florida’s best Competitive Travel Teams. Danielle was the most actively played team member, appearing in more matches then any other team member for both the Olympic Development Travel Team and Florida Southern Soccer Team. Danielle was unique in her athletic talents and was known to be the hardest working athlete, on and off the field. Danielle had a full time schedule of 18 credit hours per semester, while playing full time, traveling full time, and still managed to work when on campus as Graphic Design Departments, Graphic Lab Technician. Danielle never was a stranger to working hard, and under extreme pressure no matter what the challenge at hand.
Danielle struggles with a serious case of dyslexia that was crippling to her as a child, as a young adult, and still into her adulthood. Going to college, being a professional athlete, or even being able to over come her disability was explained to her father by doctors as “an immense impossibility”. However, with lots of schooling, training, failing, struggling, learning, and overcoming with passion, Danielle not only shattered impossibility, but also silenced the critics, indefinably.
Danielle made it her personal mission to never give up, or let anyone or anything stop her. Not only did she over come her disability, she excelled, wildly. Danielle graduated Flagler Palm Coast High School and was awarded with a highly prestigious award, The Stars Scholarship from the University of Women, as well as an Athletic Soccer Scholarship to Florida Southern College. Danielle earned a weighted 3.9-4.0 GPA through college, and graduate with high honors, Summa/Magna Cum Laude as Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Associate of Sports Management. Danielle managed to set several athletic records, in collegiate soccer history, that still stand in her name to this day. Upon graduating from FSC in 2000, Danielle was offered an additional opportunity to play overseas professionally, but quickly declined the opportunity to pursue a life most people saw to be outlandish and unachievable, and was criticized to be a “waste of talent”. After college, Danielle worked several waitressing and freelance graphic design jobs, until she joined forces with one of the most successful surfing magazines of all time, Eastern Surf Magazine.
Danielle worked as a Graphic Designer and fell in love with the sport of surfing and imagined herself in a place where she could surf and live as free as she dreamed. The team at ESM gave Danielle a fully detailed education in surf culture, which Danielle describes as “the birth of her true self-exploration”. Danielle had a strong, unwavering attraction to the ocean that not many people understood. Her mission to get to Hawaii started young, before she even saw a photo of it, or even learned about it. Danielle admires the fact that she adapted her fathers unwavering ambition to do the impossible, and thrive with no help. She also takes huge pride in overcoming abusive and negative people, and not living in fear of the “what if’s. Even though the world around her criticized her or the wild idea to give up on soccer for surfing, she never once hesitated to seek it out. She lives life with an unapologetic passion for enlightening others to never give up, and to truly do everything one can to overcome, and do the impossible.
In 2010, Danielle moved to Hawaii where she finally understood her calling. She devoted herself to a life of authentic creation, painting, waiting tables, surfing, and helping others. Danielle’s life has been riddled with hardships, but she never let the fear of a new chapter scare her off. She has put herself in unfamiliar and uncomfortable situations to learn, to experience life, and to be a positive light for herself, and others struggling with issues that are seemingly, limiting. If it seems impossible, Danielle wants a shot at it, and she challenges others to do the same. Today Danielle is said to be “One of the most exciting new artist to come along in decades.” by professional art critics around the world. She raises the interest in others to challenge the impossible in their lives. She has had success in the surf world, in which people laughed at her for daring. Danielle’s artwork is a visual journal of her travels, discoveries, and understandings. Every single painting is a message that she believes is created for exactly the right person to find, and use for their journey.
“For Danielle Zirkelbach Fenwick, inspiration constantly surrounds her, almost as if experiences seek this woman out, looking to be explained through brush strokes and pigments. Danielle’s artwork not only reflects her own stories, but the stories of so many others that have made an impact. There’s a lot of fear involved in being who we want to be, but in the end, Danielle is proof that it is so worth it."
-Lauren Rolland, Professional Editor of Free Surf Magazine
