Daniel started sculpting during primary school in Chicago, Illinois, and continued during his high school years in Ventura County, California. During high school he worked primarily with stoneware slab constructions and ceramic pottery. Then he discovered the Chinese Terracotta Warriors of Xi’an and began his long journey into China. At the University of California at San Diego, Daniel started with a degree in Microbiology and then double majored in Studio Sculpture. He focused on figurative sculpture and welding metal rebar figures. His most significant influence was Professor Italo Scanga, a major inspiration until his passing in 2001.

After completing his studies under Italo, Daniel moved to Southern China and earned his MFA at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1993. At the Academy, Daniel studied under Liang Ming Cheng, one of China's most prominent contemporary sculptors of the 1980s and 1990s. While in Guangzhou he focuses on cast bronze and steel figures. Daniel sculpted and taught sculpture in South China until 2011 and then moved his family to China’s capital Beijing. Presently in Beijing he sculpts at his studio and teaches Chinese undergraduate art students at the People’s University of China’s, Art Institute. Daniel’s new sculpting and social direction is the Microbiome. He wants to introduce the Human Microbiome’s positive health aspects, Bacteria with an artistic twist, on a large scale to our society. He and his wife are re-locating to Sydney, Australia after living in China for 30 years.