Born to parents who traveled frequently, Danae Anderson was exposed to art and various cultures at a young age. She also trained as a dancer, focusing on improvisational movement and Merce Cunningham choreography. This exposure to visual and physical creativity is evident in Anderson's work, which evolves from an interest in physicality and the immediacy of thought and action. Anderson's relationship with the canvas is intense and instinctive, accessing and allowing marks that arise through the uncensored conscious. A deep overlay of play, language, events, dreams, objects, memory, and daily experience is recorded. Anderson reflects on indigenous cultures, where things done (the making of objects) and things happening (music and dance) are one. Action and process become the principal mode of thought. Anderson feels that the artist is called to respond to things happening, and thus documents the imperatives of life.