Last November, Lexington and the world lost Dan Stone, a prolific painter and writer who lived both an expansive and quiet life.

Knowing him by name only, Undermain contributing writer Delia Gibbs set out to understand the artist, his life and the work he leaves behind. After previewing the luminous paintings in this retrospective and following conversations with Stone’s friends in Lexington and beyond, Gibbs reveals a man of great talent, style and commitment to his art and principles. 

By Delia Gibbs
Contributing Writer

Last fall, Claudia Michler got a phone call. Her dear friend, Lexington artist Dan Stone, was in palliative care and wanted to see her. Dismayed, she went to his hospital room, where he told her that he was mostly at peace about his impending earthly demise, that he had lived the life he wanted. He went on to say he needed Michler’s help. After his death, he wanted her to organize a retrospective of his extensive body of work.

Over the next several weeks, Claudia frequently came and went from his hospital room, where she often crossed paths with Stone’s sisters, Elizabeth Stone Anderson and Nancy Stone Taylor, and other visiting friends. As Stone’s strength dwindled, he also talked to Michler about his writings, leaving her with three zip drives of prose, all organized with meticulous care.

Claudia Michler met Dan Stone some 40 years ago. The two artists hit it off immediately, and Michler’s West Short Street art studio became a regular stop on Stone’s pre-painting walking ritual.

In all the years of their friendship, Michler notes that Stone had never asked her for a single favor. She has spent the months since his death fulfilling her friend’s last wish of making his art public. 

Determined to get everything right, Claudia sought help from individuals who had known and admired Dan — and from some who had never met him. Ave Lawyer, a friend of both Claudia and Dan’s, helped select the perfect venue, pull together promotional materials and more. Luigart Studios owners Marco Logsdon and Michael Satterly readily agreed to host the show. Fine arts appraisers Heike and Irwin Pickett ventured out in the January ice and snow to price the work, keeping another of Dan’s wishes in mind — that much of the art might stay within the community where he made it. The list of kindnesses goes on, and Michler likened the experience to being swept along on a continuous wave of generosity. Lawyer said it felt like they were planting “one hell of a tree” to honor Stone. 

(Some of) What Dan Told Jessamine Michler

Claudia Michler’s daughter, Jessamine, met Dan when she was a child; sometimes she joined her mother’s lunches with him and other artists. Toward the end of Stone’s life, she sat by his side and wrote what he told her by hand. You’ll find pamphlets with the full version of his bio at Luigart Studios. 

Stone was born in Hopkinsville, the eldest of three children. Stone’s father, a minister, moved the family many times — throughout Kentucky, then to St. Petersburg, Florida and back again to Kentucky. 

By 16, thanks to the support of his grandmother, Dan was traveling solo through western Europe. Just days after flying home to the Bluegrass in the summer of 1969, Stone and some friends piled into an old car and drove north to Woodstock, NY. Stalled in that infamous traffic jam, they found a farm gate, drove through the fields and parked behind the stage.

As a young man, he spent years immersed in study: in classes at Georgetown College, reading Elizabethan literature during a semester at St. Mary’s College in London and in Wendell Berry’s classroom at the University of Kentucky. In the end, Dan Stone determined that academia was not for him. He never earned a degree but remained a self-directed scholar throughout his life. 

Stone spent the late 1960s and 70s “full of wanderlust and youthful errancy.” He walked, hitchhiked and road tripped, seeking out “music and good times.”