Brooklyn-based artist Danny Cortes recreates miniature art pieces that capture the essence and nostalgia of the 80’s and 90’s urban neighborhoods and scenery of New York.
For Cortes, it all started as a hobby, that then became his full-time job. Today, some of his works are selling for thousands of dollars, even celebrities (athletes and rappers) are also buying his miniatures. additionally the respected and world renowned art auction house Sotheby’s also carries Cortes art.
Cortes journey has not been easy, he wasn’t always an artist, he has worked in various jobs including construction, sales and in a homeless shelter.
But the pandemic changed his life because during the pandemic, he realized that he should take more seriously that art which he did occasionally as a hobby because he noticed that people gravitated towards it and many wanted to but his pieces.
I started playing around with miniatures around 2019 I remember watching YouTube tutorial videos and everything on miniature art, back then I would do a piece about once every three months. “During the pandemic, we’re locked in and I can’t even go outside, I can’t do anything”. The first couple of weeks was cool, watching TV, cooking, sleeping late, being lazy.
But then I got bored and I had all these tools and things laying around in my house and I said to myself ‘What am I gonna do? I’m going crazy here”? So I started working, let me paint this, let me make a brick wall, let me make an ice box. I started working on miniature art every day and after a while I noticed that I started to get better at it. It got to a point where every time I created a piece I’ll be like “wow I would say to myself “I did that right there”.
So, I got even more motivated and got more into it, at first I was making more of a cartooning style, but then I shifted some and got more into the realism and I kept diving into it and learning more and the more you work on something the better it gets.
My mom and my daughter was like; yo dad, you should post this to show the world and I’m like “really think the world would like it”?
I said to myself, when I see miniatures from other artist, I like them so maybe others will like mine too, let me try and throw it out there. “I created a social media page on Instagram and the way the people received it, was amazing, it was getting me hype.
I wanted to create landmarks of my era of the eighties and nineties and give nostalgia to the people. I think because I first felt it in my heart and the people started to connect with me, because what I created came from the heart.
They would tell me wow, “you’re bringing me to my childhood to a certain place” like I said, its nostalgia. If I could give you two or three seconds of nostalgia, I did my job.
Art saved my life:
Art, miniatures saved my life because I was at a dark place. Before the pandemic, I was going through so much in my life and the miniatures sort made me disappear for those couple of hours and forget about my problems. That’s why I say and I continue to say that art saved my life.
Everything around inspires me:
I would say, at the end of the day, NYC life for me is where it my inspiration comes from. The day to day life like walking pass a dumpster, a mailbox, a bodega, and icebox (what I’m known for). Everything tells a story, whether it’s the rust of a building, a cigarette butt or a gum stain, everything tells a story.
90’s Hip Hop is a huge inspiration of my work because I think art and music go together. I just go into a zone, so when I’m creating definitely nineties hip hop is on the playlist and I’m going to my childhood I start reminiscing and that’s when the details come out, the rust and the gum stains the cigarettes the posters the fliers from live shows of that time.
To me everyday living is inspirational, everything around us inspires me. Some of my first pieces, like the ice Box has changed in todays world. If you look at ice box today, its different compared to the way they were back then (Cortes laughs).
Man, for me the icebox and that feeling I get, its my number one it’s my best one spiritually because that’s how I started, it got me hooked, it took me to a place where I needed to be, it had me in the zone.
Some people do yoga to meditate, miniatures is how I meditate, when I’m creating, it’s like I’m going to some other planet I don’t know where but I just zone out and it brings me peace.
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