Dan Rojas


The artistic world for Dan Rojas was created long before he was born. His talented parents were circus performers in the days when towns long awaited the show’s arrival with welcoming parades. His father born and raised in Mexico was the premiere unicycle rider of his time. His mother born in Quincy, Illinois, joined her aunt and uncle's circus at a very young age performing high acts and horse back riding. After several years of performing together, Dan's parents purchased carnival concession games and, eventually, that became their main business. By the time Dan was born in 1968, the circus days were long gone. Major state fairs and carnivals were here to stay.

As a young child, he spent every summer vacation traveling with his parents on various carnivals throughout the United States. From about 7 years old to his teenage years, his summer days were a kid’s dream come true living the “carnival life”. He had several friends who also traveled with the fairs and met many people from the different towns they visited. By the age of 15, his summers were spent working concession games. "Valuable Experience" are the words Dan uses to describe his young working years. Many people from the towns they visited were fascinated with carnival life. They became annual friends while others were extremely prejudice against "carney people" showing the ugly side of humanity. Nine months out of every year was spent like any other teenager, living at home and going to school. The transition was always difficult for Dan. The yearly routine included being a member of the wrestling team at Brandon High School. Proud he was a part of something special, the wrestling team obtained the longest winning streak in the world, almost 30 years without a loss.

After graduating high school in 1986, Dan spent two years working with his family’s business while unsure what to do with his life. The carnival they were traveling with took part in the motion picture "Big" starring Tom Hanks. That year when the fair season was over, Dan started taking acting classes. It was a case of being in the right place at the right time. He quickly got lots of work as an extra, principal extra and took part in a ballet direct by Mikhail Baryshnikov. Within 5 months of starting acting classes, Dan got a big break with an NBC made for TV movie "In The Line of Duty - FBI Murders" staring David Soul and Michael Gross. Stunt work turned into production work and a two day schedule on the set, turned into two weeks. "It was the only time in my life I truly felt at total peace" is how Dan describes it. The two weeks of acting work cost Dan the telemarketing job he had at the time, and he went out to work with his parents one more summer.

While working a county fair, the state police closed and confiscated several carnival games. All employees working those games were arrested, Dan included. Charges were eventually dropped, and the state of Pennsylvania apologized for police error. A turning point for Dan, he realized carnival life was not for him. Returning to acting class, he performed a scene in an actor's workshop with an established model and actress, Denise. They soon spent every possible minute together. Within 3 months, being very young and in love, they were married.

After marriage, their acting careers were short lived. Being a young couple in the acting industry, they found instability with their career choice. Life was leading Dan and Denise in a more secure direction. For a while, they dabbled in photography and were financially strapped. They decided to take a job at a local publishing company working the night shift. Both were introduced to computers and received on the job training for graphic arts. After two years away from acting, Denise got her last modeling job for a magazine. Dan accompanied her to the photo shoot. He was always fascinated with photography and got to see professional photographers in action. The knowledge he gained observing was priceless.

Three months after the photo shoot, Dan and Denise ventured off with their own photography business full time. They also invested in their first Color Macintosh Computer. While getting film developed, a connection was made with a regional manager of a national photo lab chain. The manager was intrigued with the portraits they took, and by chance, Dan had a sample of a photo he attempted to "Digitally Retouch". A great impression was made. They started vendoring their photo restoration service to 10 stores. Quickly, they gained experience and grew to over 150 stores offering their service nationwide. At that time, in1993, most people did not know photographs could even be displayed on computers. By 1994, they were digitally retouching 30-40 photos a week on two state of the art (slow) 16 megahertz computers.

Over the next few years, computers got much faster and the skill level they obtained made them two of the top digital restoration artists in the world. They would routinely and successfully take on jobs that companies like Eastman Kodak said were impossible to restore. By 1997, Dan and Denise had restored over 7,000 photographs. Dan was also developing graphic designs for several of their their corporate clients. All the experience of, basically, redrawing people’s destroyed photographs over the years, developed Dan's talents for creating abstract images and drawing portraits from photographic images.

In November of 2000, Dan had a mild set back. While working out and lifting weights, he had a severe cerebral hemorrhage. It turned out to be a brain aneurysm. The first neurosurgeon assigned to Dan gave him a 1% chance of surviving and 0% chance of ever leading a normal life again. Dan recalls "as this doctor was telling my family and me this, I could not believe it. I was awake, and I could move my hands and feet. I felt normal except for a stiff neck and an indescribable headache that would pound with every beat of my heart. It felt like a brain freeze headache x 10." Dan was soon transferred to a larger hospital with slightly more optimistic doctors. On November 7, 2000, (Election Day), Dan underwent a non-invasive angio style surgery where a series of small platinum coils filled his aneurysm. His surgery was successful, but they kept him in Intensive Care for 10 days. While in the hospital he recalls, “I temporally developed an unusual mind body connection. I could slow my heart rate to as low as 26bpm or as high as 80bpm by just thinking about it.” After only two weeks, Dan walked out of the hospital. No one could believe what happened to him. He looked normal. "I was blessed, a lot of people prayed for me." Dan's only rehab was dealing with some fears, physically he had no residual problems except for headaches which was part of a normal recovery. When asked about his ordeal, he says, "Everything shook me up for a while, weird how scary the world is once your false sense of security is ripped away."

The year that followed was very difficult. Shortly after Dan’s health problem, he returned to computer work doing photo restorations. However, the photo processing industry was rapidly consolidating. Over 150 stores they vendored their service to quickly diminished to only 5. Most of the stores closed or were bought out by another company. Dan and Denise continued to pursue thier graphic design business, and Dan relied heavily on his art to clear his mind. Dan responds, "Art became more serious to me. I no longer desired to just make something that looked good. I felt the need to add feelings to my work.”

Since 1999, Dan's work has been displayed in numerous venues and shows throughout the U.S.A. His work is in several private collections including Raymond James.

On a personal note, Dan was given a clean bill of health after several follow up exams. He feels completely cured physically and emotionally. He thanks his family for all their love and support. After 16 years married to Denise, they live happily in Tampa, Florida, with their adorable 6 dogs and 1 cat. (all rescued strays). He is very grateful the way his life has turned out and would not change a thing.