Dana Queen was born in Detroit, Michigan and when she was five years old her parents left the city for tranquil farm life in the country. She spent the next thirteen years surrounded by the beauty of nature and the pure love of animals, laying the foundation for her artistic future.Dana had a vivid imagination, and astride her horse she became an Indian princess or cowgirl Annie Oakley riding the range. She showed a natural aptitude for drawing and painting the beauty around her but her true talent had yet to blossom. She'd excelled in art classes in high school but it wasn't until she reached her twenties, when extensive travel exposed her to nature's diversity, that her creativity burst forth. As she crisscrossed the U.S preferring the warm coasts of Florida and California, she would enroll in college art courses at each stop. She learned to scuba dive, to commune with the living, breathing wonders of the sea that she could touch, feel and record on canvas. The beauty of life both above and below the water entered her soul and became one with her art.Her artistic imagination was now unlocked forever. She dove in the waters of the Caribbean Sea and later in the Pacific and other oceans and drank in the mystical colors and textures of the underwater world. These merged with the more familiar sights of the land bound world to give her not only a wider range of subjects to paint but also a clear vision of life's mosaic. She saw that the beauty in the sea matched the beauty of man and beast, mountain and jungle. She saw God's creation in all its majesty and set about perfecting her skills in painting it for the ages.Dana met artist John Pitre, know as one of America's foremost surrealist painters, while skiing in the Rocky Mountain resort of Telluride. They lived there five years, skiing in the winter and traveling in the summer, before returning to Florida. Their adventures were ongoing as they bought a seaplane, learned to fly, and explored remote Bahamas reefs. Dana moved to Hawaiʻi over twenty seven years ago and in such a nurturing setting it led her to new artistic heights.In the island, Dana found an environment filled with an aesthetic charm both above and below the turquoise water. She lives and works in her studo in Honolulu, finding an unending loveliness in the fragrant flora, sunrises and sunsets and the creatures of the colorful coral reefs. She combs the beaches, hikes the vibrant rainforests and dives in the warm clear ocean.