"The Picture Show, presenting Nebraska artists in the permanent collection of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska."

[NARRATOR] "Dan Howard is a professor of art at UNL. He is widely known for his virtuosity in the application of paint and for the very specific choices of his palette."
[Dan Howard] "I paint for two viewing distances basically. First of all, close up, if a person will allow him or herself as a viewer to approach the actual physical surface and to be aware of it, first of all, as a painting. A collection of marks and strokes and pigment, and see what it is doing on the surface. And then to get back at some distance and see how, then, the collection of marks and strokes and colors can somehow coalesce and make up what we call in general terms a composition."
[NARRATOR] "Some of Howard's work has biting satire and humor."
[Dan Howard] "Satire has been an important ingredient in what I've done over the years. I don't believe in taking myself all that seriously and I don't think art should take itself all that seriously all the time."
[NARRATOR] "Howard's sense of humor is evident in the way he titles his work. Tied Fruit and Vegetables form the bondage series. A monochromatic abstraction is Rubbish in Black and White. And here is Passions of the Times.
[Dan Howard] "Each succeeding work I learn more about the parameters, more about the options, more about the possibilities that are entertainable in the painting medium so the horizon keeps extending itself. It keeps getting farther away.The main challenge is to try to keep the work as fresh and as spontaneous, as inquiring and as sensitive as I know how to make it. The physical process, the creative process, the emotional-intellectual process, this keeps me on my toes and it keeps me challenged. Keeps me excited."