Summer time is for travel and discovering new and exciting people, places and, if you are like us, art. This week we wanted to travel to the South of France, at least virtually, and talk to artist Dawn Dudek about paintings, Pinterest and fusing fashion with art. We first met Dawn when she was working in Computer Graphics in Toronto prior to her moving to France. We were lucky to reconnect with her and follow her artistic career from art, photography, film and back again. We asked Dawn a few questions about her start, her career trajectory and of course painting Pins. We’re hoping next time we can meet in person, perhaps in some small village bistro with a glass of French wine…
Tell us a bit about your background. When you were younger, what enticed you to study at the Ontario College of Art?
From a young age I was interested in art and by Grade 6 was drawing a lot, even started asking my older sister to tell me what her art homework was so I could do it for fun. Around 13 someone told me I could be a ‘commercial artist’ and make a living at it. Until that point, I had no idea that was even a possibility. That was the moment I decided that I would be an artist.
I selected OCA (OCAD) to study at one of the top schools in Canada and also relocate to a bigger city. I looked into OCA, NSCAD and Emily Carr, but to be honest I really wanted to move to Toronto and I liked the diversity of the OCA curriculum, especially the new media department. I was already experimenting with photography, painting and video and was anxious to learn more.
Did you study Art as well as Photography at the Ontario College of Art? I read that your first exhibit was photographic and that lead you to Jr. art director position for MAC Cosmetics. Was Photography your first medium of art?
I started out as a painter. My portfolio to get into OCA was mostly paintings and drawings with some experimental photographic pieces incorporating my paintings and sculpture. I went into the General Studies department where I studied painting, illustration, contemporary sculpture, experimental photography, photo-electric arts, animation, printmaking. plus a lot of other courses. Towards fourth year my focus was mostly on photography and contemporary sculpture, making large reprographs on transparencies and mounting them onto metal structures. I loved creating dimensions with ‘flat’ materials. This was the series that was shown at my first exhibition. After graduation, while looking for gallery representation, I started working at M.A.C. Cosmetics as a make-up artist. Eventually I had the opportunity to show Frank Toscan, owner and creative director of M.A.C., my portfolio. He purchased two pieces and hired me to make custom artwork for all the offices and manufacturing facilities and eventually creating the counter displays. Not long after I was hired full time as Jr. art director.
How did you move from that into Computer Graphics?
While working at M.A.C. I was really into computers. The first cool site I discovered on the Internet was performance artist Laurie Anderson’s, she was such a pioneer. I wanted to explore that field more but it wasn’t really fitting in with my position at M.A.C. One of my friends introduced me to a friend who told me I should talk to Susan Armstrongc at Topix, a broadcast animation company. I brought in my portfolio and the work at Topix and it was like a dream job. Compiling all creative areas that interested me and adding in the element of technology, time and motion, I couldn’t believe a job like this existed. Working at Topix was such a challenging, rewarding, and creative work environment. I have nothing but great memories from my time there and the people I worked with who are so talented. I often miss that environment.
Tell us a little about your trajectory into fine art and how you wound moving from Canada to France?
Around 2000 the tech sector took quite a hit, and companies were suffering, so I became a casualty of layoffs, both at Topix and McCann Interactive. I was already thinking about a major lifestyle change, as creative burnout was starting to creep in. I started thinking about going back to something much more tangible, creating with my hands again. I knew I would return to painting at some point, and it seemed like the perfect time and opportunity. A friend of mine was living in the south of France so I sold everything to go to Europe and try to become a painter. It was as crazy as that!
The filmscape series you did really seems to marry fine art w/ a bit of a cinematic backdrop. Your paintings in this series really feel like a filmstrip running on a reel, at least how films used to be made. Did you set out to create the feeling of a close up view from a film rolling on a reel?
Yes, it was exactly my inspiration for the split images. With the filmscape paintings your eye is constantly looking up and down between the two areas. I wanted them to have that feeling of movement, but it also meant I could explore other meanings. I am very drawn to multiples, two things that seem the same but are different. With the filmscapes, the duplication is not quite exact and that is important for me.
It took me a bit to get onto Pinterest but you seemed to be on board fairly early with it. Tell us how you came about with the idea to Paint your Pins? Did you paint all the pins you had posted when you started the project?
I initially started off collecting images on AnOther magazine’s ‘Loves‘ site, but then put them all on Pinterest. At the time I had no idea I would be painting these pictures as I was collecting them. That is why the number of paintings (124) is so unusual. The moment I saw them all together, and thought ‘wow, it might be interesting to paint all of these as a kind of online portrait’ and stopped pinning to that board. I have a new board on Pinterest that I may paint in the future with images collected thinking about wanting to paint them. I think it will be interesting to compare the two series. It’s turned out to take more time to execute than I initially thought. I am actually thinking it would be interesting to install the piece somewhere and then grow it with new paintings every 6 months.
You seem to use Acrylics and Oil paints, are their other forms you like as well? Do you have a preference as to which type of paint you use or does it depend on the project?
I use only Acrylic and Oil paints. The paint used depends on the look I want to have for the picture as they both have unique qualities.
Over the last little while, you’ve transferred your art into fashion, can you explain how that first came about?
My friend from OCA, now living in Florence, became involved in a textile company and asked me if she could use one of my paintings as a print on the fabric. It turns out my painting style and subject matter translates perfectly to the size (140cm x 145cm) and fabric (silk/modal). The response was so positive we now have a collection of scarves with my paintings on them called ‘Tie me up couture By Dawn Dudek‘. It just launched just 2 months ago and the response has been great. They are currently available at Gas Bijoux in St Tropez and we are in the process of making them available in other shops in more countries. I don’t make the paintings for the scarves and that is what makes these unique. It’s a painting that is being transformed onto different material. Some people who purchase them prefer to hang them on the wall instead of wear them.
Do you see Art as a multi-media forum, something than can translate through many different avenues?
Yes definitely. It is what interests me most about the art that I make, that it can go through so many different permeations. I find the journey and life of images fascinating.
What do you see doing next with your artwork?
Painting so many different images I start to have new ideas about how I can group them together. Using both different materials and in other contexts. I am inspired by the work of artist Annette Messager and her exploration of various materials and how she assembles them. Paintings are usually something you want to touch but in most cases you’re not allowed to. I like that people can take the prints on paper and pin or clip them how they want, or they could throw the whole series around on cushions or twist and wrap the paintings around themselves as scarves.
