Dorothy Graden
Solo Show
Solo Show
Dorothy Graden
Solo Show
July 7 - July 13
Artist Reception
Sunday, July 7th
2:00pm - 5:00pm
Refreshments will be served
Dorothy's work is ancient and contemporary, "Ethno-futuristic"
Come celebrate with us!
Giclee high quality museum reproductions on archival paper are available for sale.
dorothygraden.com
Facebook Page
After traveling more than 20 years to the rock art sites and ancient ruins in the American west, Hawaii, and The Dutch Antilles and viewing them with native people and archeologists, I want to share the great treasure of the records of ancient lives. Prehistoric people everywhere left their information on rock. I often stand in silence and awe and can feel the great strength and sorrows of the people who lived on the land thousands of years before the Europeans arrived. Their spirits reach out and touch me and their lives reach out through their rock art.
They are the ancestors of the land we inhabit.
It brings me to a place where words can't go, so with great love and respect, this art seems to flow through me in a most joyful way.
I have presented my field work on Rock Art at the Russian Academy of Science in Moscow and at University College Cork, Ireland. My photographs have been published in the Theosophical Society's journal, Quest. I have exhibited in juried shows, galleries and museums throughout the Midwest and the Chicago area and have representation with the Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ.
I have also been teaching kindergarten for 25 years. Throughout these years, while teaching and raising a family, I spent my summers exploring rock art sites. Sometimes my daughter and sister went with me and we loved hiking together and discovering these remote sites. We would sit with the boulders, or in the cave shelters and enjoy the spirit energy that emanates from the carved and painted walls, sometimes spending hours just drawing and listening to the hummingbirds and the cicadas. You know, in the quiet of the desert, a cicada sounds like a semi-truck!
Then, during the school year, I started interpreting all these wonderful and sacred images on to silk scarves and started making clay sculptures inspired by the ancient rock panels. I began reading dozens of books on ancient rock art from all over the world. Books by Native Americans, archeologists, anthropologists, linguists, folklorists, ethnologists, and others who specialize in ancient rock drawings. I hold a great respect for those who have spent their lives recording, studying and protecting these sacred sites.
Teaching was wonderful, but I really wanted to focus on art full time, so last year I took the leap into the art world, and finally embraced this new career. All the drawing and photographing I had done started coming out of me in a new way. I guess I didn't realize it but I had been incubating the spirit and the images for so very long. I just love love love drawing and painting images that have been inspired by my journeys into sacred spaces of those who lived on the land thousands of years ago. I have learned a great deal about their lives, their beliefs, their sorrows and joys. Each one of my art pieces reflects the love and respect I have for these sites and images.
I believe that my work speaks to each viewer in different ways. Many have given me their own beautiful interpretations and those who have purchased my art continue to find more details and surprises in the pictures. My smaller works are drawn on archival paper that I make myself. The Legend Series is drawn on a hand cast shape of an image I saw in Wyoming on a rock panel. I like making the paper for the drawings. I like the feel of it, it is very sensual to draw on, and I believe the natural paper gives me a closer connection to the source. Also, there is more of me, the artist, in each piece.
Solo Show
July 7 - July 13
Artist Reception
Sunday, July 7th
2:00pm - 5:00pm
Refreshments will be served
Dorothy's work is ancient and contemporary, "Ethno-futuristic"
Come celebrate with us!
Giclee high quality museum reproductions on archival paper are available for sale.
dorothygraden.com
Facebook Page
After traveling more than 20 years to the rock art sites and ancient ruins in the American west, Hawaii, and The Dutch Antilles and viewing them with native people and archeologists, I want to share the great treasure of the records of ancient lives. Prehistoric people everywhere left their information on rock. I often stand in silence and awe and can feel the great strength and sorrows of the people who lived on the land thousands of years before the Europeans arrived. Their spirits reach out and touch me and their lives reach out through their rock art.
They are the ancestors of the land we inhabit.
It brings me to a place where words can't go, so with great love and respect, this art seems to flow through me in a most joyful way.
I have presented my field work on Rock Art at the Russian Academy of Science in Moscow and at University College Cork, Ireland. My photographs have been published in the Theosophical Society's journal, Quest. I have exhibited in juried shows, galleries and museums throughout the Midwest and the Chicago area and have representation with the Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ.
I have also been teaching kindergarten for 25 years. Throughout these years, while teaching and raising a family, I spent my summers exploring rock art sites. Sometimes my daughter and sister went with me and we loved hiking together and discovering these remote sites. We would sit with the boulders, or in the cave shelters and enjoy the spirit energy that emanates from the carved and painted walls, sometimes spending hours just drawing and listening to the hummingbirds and the cicadas. You know, in the quiet of the desert, a cicada sounds like a semi-truck!
Then, during the school year, I started interpreting all these wonderful and sacred images on to silk scarves and started making clay sculptures inspired by the ancient rock panels. I began reading dozens of books on ancient rock art from all over the world. Books by Native Americans, archeologists, anthropologists, linguists, folklorists, ethnologists, and others who specialize in ancient rock drawings. I hold a great respect for those who have spent their lives recording, studying and protecting these sacred sites.
Teaching was wonderful, but I really wanted to focus on art full time, so last year I took the leap into the art world, and finally embraced this new career. All the drawing and photographing I had done started coming out of me in a new way. I guess I didn't realize it but I had been incubating the spirit and the images for so very long. I just love love love drawing and painting images that have been inspired by my journeys into sacred spaces of those who lived on the land thousands of years ago. I have learned a great deal about their lives, their beliefs, their sorrows and joys. Each one of my art pieces reflects the love and respect I have for these sites and images.
I believe that my work speaks to each viewer in different ways. Many have given me their own beautiful interpretations and those who have purchased my art continue to find more details and surprises in the pictures. My smaller works are drawn on archival paper that I make myself. The Legend Series is drawn on a hand cast shape of an image I saw in Wyoming on a rock panel. I like making the paper for the drawings. I like the feel of it, it is very sensual to draw on, and I believe the natural paper gives me a closer connection to the source. Also, there is more of me, the artist, in each piece.
