Creative Couples: Dan and Nisha Ferguson. DaNisha, A Life In Ceramics, Circus And Love

Camie Fenton
13 oct
3 Min. de lectura

By Judith Jenya

From the time they were three years old, both Dan and Nisha Ferguson knew they would be artists. Neither strayed from that path. Each was the eldest of three siblings, leading younger brothers or sisters into endless childhood adventures. They met at the Art Centre of the Technical School of Ontario in Toronto. After graduation, their friendship grew into a partnership in life and art. By 1991 they were collaborating, had a business and launched a creative journey that would eventually carry them to San Miguel de Allende, where they have lived since 2001. Their shared work, sold under the name DaNisha, is joyful and playful, much like their lives. Dan sculpts animal figures, bowls, and platters while Nisha sketches and paints whimsical creatures and dreamlike cities onto the surfaces. Each piece depends on both of their skills, a true artistic marriage.

Collectors across Canada, the U.S., México, and Australia have sought out their ceramics. Sponsors and patrons helped open doors to galleries and major art buyers. In San Miguel, their work became almost essential. As locals said around 2010, “No elegant home was complete without a DaNisha piece on the table.” Yet their success has not been without challenges. Because their ceramics and Dan’s sculptures are their sole livelihood, global downturns hit hard. After 9/11, sales slowed. The 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic years again disrupted income. Still, they continued creating. Today, their work is available at Casa Maxwell and by appointment in their home studio. But ceramic sculpture tells only part of their story.

Raised by a single mother, Nisha developed fierce independence early. As a child she taught herself gymnastics, later sharing it with others. At 33, she attended a Cirque du Soleil show in Montreal and longed to learn aerial acrobatics. Turned away for her age, she studied videos and taught herself instead. Dan built a 13-foot pole and trapeze, and soon she was performing. In Toronto she formed a troupe called GravityWorks, which continues today in San Miguel, now under the direction of Ana Cecilia Corona. Nisha still trains three to four times a week on aerial silks in the circus studio outside her front door.

Dan is equally restless in his creativity. He now works on large-scale sculptures, some cast in bronze. One piece pairs a bronze horse with a ceramic rider, while another , a commission for Canada’s Northwest Territories depicts life-size miners and carts honoring indigenous workers. These projects, produced in San Miguel and cast in México City, show his ability to move from intimate pottery to monumental public art.

In 2001, the Fergusons packed their VW van and drove from Canada to México, starting a new chapter with their two sons. Both boys grew up in San Miguel and carried on the family’s artistic endeavors. Josh, the elder, lives with his wife and children in Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories, accessible only by plane, where he works as a photographer and video producer. Julian pursued ballroom dance, having studied as a teenager at the Arthur Murray studio in San Miguel becoming a professional competitor and judge in the Arthur Murray world.

Nisha’s childhood passion for dollhouses resurfaced after the birth of a granddaughter. She and Dan have devoted an entire room to miniature houses and furniture, a playful new outlet for their creativity.

Transporting fragile ceramics across borders remains one of their ongoing challenges. But to Dan and Nisha, these logistics are part of the adventure. Dan brings each piece of their ceramic sculptures across the border himself before shipping it to purchasers. What matters most is the joy of making, the balance of working together, and the community they have created around their home and art.

More than three decades after they began collaborating, the Fergusons continue to live as they create—with joy, resilience, and imagination. Their art, their circus, their sculptures, their pottery, their home and family are all pieces of one seamless whole.

They have not only made art; they have shaped a life that is itself a work of art.

danishasculpture@gmail.com