Daniel P. Pierce, painter, printmaker, sculptor, and teacher, was born in Woodlake, California on September 10, 1920. His early art training was at the Art Center School and the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. Due to the entry of the United States into World War II, Pierce was drafted into the army. After the war he took advantage of the GI Bill by continuing his education at the American Art School in New York where he studied with William Gropper and Raphael Soyer, and at the Brooklyn Museum Art School where he came under the influence of Max Beckmann, Gabor Peterdi, and Ben Shahn.

Pierce moved to Kent, Washington in 1953. He had a varied teaching career in the Northwest: he taught at Seattle University, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle Art Institute, and the Seattle Art Museum. He was awarded a Carnegie Grant in 1959 and the following year he founded the art department of the University of Alaska. He taught at the university until 1963 and he also earned a degree in journalism. Pierce was hired by the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1965 to teach printmaking and he retired as professor emeritus in 1984. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of arts from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks in 2012.

His work is represented in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Brooklyn Museum, Library of Congress, Museum of Modern Art New York, Museum of the North, National Museum of Sweden, Seattle Art Museum, Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Danny Pierce died in Kent, Washington on March 6, 2014.