Dan Junot is a true renaissance man. Born on a kitchen table in Houma, Louisiana during WWII, he has enjoyed full time careers as a newspaper ad-copy designer; a feature writer and photographer; a shipment's manager for a trucking company; and as a member of the military/security police in the U. S. Air Force -- where he was the classical vocalist winner in the 1964 USAF World-Wide Talent Show. Later, his success as a school music teacher and choral director at the elementary and secondary levels, secured his placement as Director of Choral Activities and Head Vocal Instructor at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux.
Dan left teaching to complete his Masters in Vocal Music Performance at Loyola University in New Orleans in 1985 -- where he soloed with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on numerous occasions. He has received many awards for his stage performances, singing title roles in such musicals as Man of La Mancha, and The King & I.
While studying at Loyola, he worked as Director of Counseling at Archbishop Shaw High School. Soon after, he became a state Licensed Mental Health Professional with a concentration in sex-therapy, and worked as Clinical Director for the Sexual Life Center, a prominent male urological/sexual-dysfunction clinic in the New Orleans area. Later, he opened his own private practice at Lakeside Hospital In Metairie, Louisiana in mental health counseling. Dan continued his training and became a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, as well. He has authored and published several books (some on self-help, sex-therapy) and one special book -- a biography of his Down Syndrome Daughter, Jackie.
Dan, a natural-born, genuine Cajun -being of Acadian French ancestry by birth & a life-long resident of South Louisiana). As a paint-brush artist, his award-winning compositions reflect (sometimes humorously, sometimes dramatically) the Creole & Cajun-French heritage of Terrebonne & Lafourche Parishes. His subject matter includes the plants, animals, architecture & folk of his beloved bayou country.
At 62, Dan retired to paint -- and has had three major solo-shows in the last five years. His hobby is cooking and some say he could have--should have--been a chef, too. (Think gumbo.)
He has studied the master painters in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Huntington Library and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, the Houston Museum of Art, and the New Orleans Museum of Art . However, Dan says he has learned the most from his next door class-room friend and fellow teacher, Lula Ameen (now deceased)-- a nationally recognized watercolorists. They taught together in high school and the local university for 10 years during which Dan learned a great deal just from listening to Lula critique student's work.
Today, he paints in watercolor, casein (milk-based paint), and fixed guazzo (permanent gouache), egg tempera, pen & ink, acrylic, and oil, ink charcoal, as well as the old French school technique conté crayon. Dan also does sculpture in Papier Mache.’
Aside from a one semester, basic design course with Orville Henchy at
Northwestern State College in 1960, Dan has no formal training in art, and is almost entirely self-taught. He
started drawing & painting at
approximately age 10, and almost
immediately began winning ribbons in art exhibitions and contests. His paintings hang in private collections
from small Louisiana towns with quaint French names, to major US cities like
Atlanta and Manhattan. He has studied the master painters
in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Huntington Library and
the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art
in New Orleans, the Houston Museum of Art, and the New Orleans Museum
of Art.
He paints in watercolor, casein (milk-based paint), and fixed
guazzo (permanent gouache), egg tempera, pen & ink, acrylic, and
oil, ink charcoal, as well as the old French school technique: conté crayon. Dan also does sculpture in Papier Mache.’
