The Unlikely Chronicler of the American West: Dani Vergés

There is purity and freshness to Dani Vergés’ artwork. His images of life in the American West seem to draw you in and transport you into the scene they portray. You can almost hear the swish of the horse’s tail, the rumble of a cattle herd, or the swaying prairie grasses.

Yet, you would be mistaken to assume that Vergés grew up in the cowboy country he loves to portray. In fact, they are the work of a Spaniard who lives just outside Barcelona in a small village nestled between the Catalan Pyrenees Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea.

One of the first things you hear from Vergés is that he is not an artist, even though his drawings and paintings tell you otherwise. His humility, delivered with a slight smile, is sincere and refreshing. A graphic artist by trade, he has made a career out of working with companies and brands to help them develop their identities through his company, Slow Art Works.

His grandfather was the first to notice Vergés’s artistic talent and instill in him a deep love affair with the American West.

“I spent joyous weekends at my grandparents’ house as a kid. My grandfather and I would sit together watching classic old western movies together; John Wayne was one of his favorites. I know I got my artistic drive from him. He loved to shoot photos of his garden and create elaborate slideshows we would watch together. Every afternoon with him, he encouraged me to draw and paint with watercolors. I often recreated the scenes we had just watched in the movies.”

He attended university to study art for a short stint but quickly realized that a different path was calling him. His instructors were diving deep into the formalities of art, and he just wanted to create whatever came to his mind. A self-taught artist armed with the lessons imparted by his grandfather that less is more in art, he was drawn to Japanese graphic design. It is a style that values simplicity, balance, and harmony, often drawing inspiration from nature.

But he couldn’t escape the call of the American West. After his grandfather passed away, his grandmother revealed that he had kept every piece of art Verges had done at their home. So much of it was of the western landscapes they both were entranced by from the movies they had watched together. That just fed the fires.

He spent some time helping on a ranch in southern Colorado. Surrounded by stunning landscapes, a large bison herd, and cowboys, his love affair only deepened. When he wasn’t working, he would shoot photos and feverishly document what he saw in his sketchbook.

“It was a wild time in my life that felt like I was being transported back in time to a place that both seemed normal and made no sense to me. The American West is both surreal and stunning, especially to a kid from Barcelona. Since then, I have made it a point to travel back there as much as possible.”

Both in his graphic art and in his art, there is a rawness in Vergé’s work. Often, you are just presented with the subject he is focusing on and not much else. He purposely leaves the backgrounds and margins intentionally blank or minimally filled. Instead of tightly defining what the viewer sees, he invites them to fill in the gaps and create their own story for an image. He often works from photos he has shot to impart a fluidity that captures your eyes.

Vergés has worked with Filson several times, and he designed Filson’s season’s greeting animation, which graces our website. In it, you are pulled into a wilderness with a pair of wolves in the heart of winter. It is a mesmerizing work of art that perfectly conveys the drive for survival that led to the formation of our company over a century ago—that’s exactly as he would have it.

“I started drawing cowboys and western images for fun; they just made me smile and remind me of the good times I had with my grandfather. The American West is so beautiful, isolated, and peaceful. I think that comes through in my drawings. You may say I am an artist, but I would say I am not. Instead, I suggest that I am someone who feels the need to share something with the world.