Artist Biography
Over 30 years ago, as a young girl in fifth grade, Dana Cargile began painting under the tutelage of her grandmother, Wauzelia Shelley. Wauzelia, an accomplished artist, travelled around Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City selling landscape paintings out of the trunk of her car. Her home was filled with art, some of it hers, some of it traded from other artists and some from workshops. “She was my first painting instructor, and the inspiration to be an artist came from her,” said Dana.
Dana later received her formal art education from Southwest Museum of Art in Midland, TX, Baylor University, and workshops in Jackson, MS, Tyler, TX, and The Glassell in Houston.
Dana's painting style can be attributed to growing up in West Texas,  reflected in the loose, painterly and impressionistic qualities in her own work.

As an art teacher, Dana has experience teaching young people and adults.  She also taught art to 6th through 12th graders at The Brook Hill School in Bullard, TX. Dana has been the art instructor for Tyler Junior College Continuing Education students for several years before  moving to Houston in 2021.
Not only is Dana an art teacher, but she is a practicing professional artist. She regularly submits to juried art shows and is represented by The House of Wynne in Tyler, Texas.  
She was the illustrator for “Pet Fairy,” a children’s book, The Art of Christmas, and has created art for church bulletins distributed nationwide by Anchor Wallace Publications.
Dana loved working for Valerosa Designs and Art Gallery, when living in Tyler, Texas, hanging new paintings, rotating art displays, showing and selling artworks to the public.
Dana is also active in promoting nonprofits through her art.  She served as the Children’s Artist for Cattle Baron’s Little Wrangler’s, and worked with oncology children to create paintings to fund raise for the American Cancer Society.
Now living in Houston, Dana’s new studio is located at The Silos, 1502 Sawyer,  Studio #317, Sawyer Yards-Houston, an art studio co-op.