Daniel Joseph Colonna

Soulmate. One true love. Best friend. Amazing artist. The most loving, kind, doting, selfless, and encouraging father in the universe.

Daniel Joseph Colonna, 56, a beautiful man, who meant so much to so many, left this world September 18, 2024. He was at home in Hendersonville, North Carolina and surrounded by love.

Dan was an amazing artist who loved Dali, Bouguereau, and HR Giger as well as many artists in the Dark Art movement of which he was a part. He had a great love for “The Hobby” which is the term lovingly used for those obsessed with building and painting garage kits and was a regular contributor to Amazing Figure Modeler Magazine.

Dan was also a lover of all things Italian including the little village of Sutri where he and his wife lived for a year surrounded by a community that embraced them as their own. He was known for never losing a battle of wits, his keen intelligence, and a way of making friends with everyone he encountered. He was kind, deeply caring and enjoyed making those around him feel valued. In the last weeks of his life, when every day was packed with visitors from around the country, Dan would often shrug and say, “Everybody loves me!” It was the truth.

Though art was always Dan’s passion and an important part of his legacy, what meant the most to him was his legacy of love. He loved his family, friends, and especially his kids, in a way that was impossible not to share. There was never a moment in Dan’s family that they did not feel loved by him. And it was not just his words, but his actions. As Dan’s death approached, he found the greatest comfort in knowing that Nate and Illiana were loved with all his being and that they in turn had the tools to love their friends and families in the same way. This legacy of his love would be so strong that it would pass from generation to generation…a love strong enough to withstand time and death.

Dan will always be loved and deeply missed by his wife, Rhonda Walsingham-Colonna and their two children, Nathaniel Colonna and Illiana Walsingham-Johnson as well as by his father Louis J. Colonna Jr. and siblings, Michael (Jennifer) Colonna, David (Audrey) Colonna, and Christy (Scott) Gallo.

Dan was predeceased by his mother, Virginia D. Colonna.

Dan was given back to the earth on October 8, 2024, at Ramsey Creek Preserve in Westminster, South Carolina.

If you would like to donate in Dan’s honor, please contact The Caring House (caringhouse.org). They offer low-cost housing for those receiving cancer treatment at Duke Cancer Institute. There is no way to express the difference they made in Dan and Rhonda’s life.

So, wherever you are in this world dear friends, love deeply, love openly, love wildly with all your heart. Raise a perfectly mixed Negroni to Dan and always remember.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Daniel Joseph Colonna, please visit our floral store.