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Dorian McGowan was born in Fairfax, VT in 1933. After early schooling in St. Albans, VT he studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. After getting an MA at Columbia he began teaching art in New York State. In 1959 he joined the faculty at Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, Vermont until his retirement in 2006. Dorian is a gifted and imaginative creator and teacher of art. He has influenced the lives and work of many students, some of whom have named their children after him.
Dorian has been a prolific portrait painter throughout his career. He is currently engaged in a project called “Painting the Town” in which he has been asked to paint portraits of all the residents of East Burke, VT. Those portraits are on view at the Burke Mountain Club in E. Burke. Half of his show at the Maple Ridge Gallery is made up of portraits that are influenced by his study of mummy portraits made in Roman Egypt between the 1st and 3rd century AD. Found largely in the Fayum oasis, one of the richest agricultural areas of Egypt, they are known as Fayum portraits. Painted on wood and inserted in the mummy wrappings, they are characterized by intense staring eyes and strong features. Dorian’s portraits are painted on 7x7” ceramic tiles mounted on individual wooden backs for hanging. Others are wax crayon and pastel drawings on paper, some with gold detail.
The other half of this exhibit is a body of work focused on knots, physical and symbolic. Inspired by the writings of R.D. Laing on knots, Dorian has made a series of brightly colored knitted tubular sculptures that form fanciful knotted forms intertwined in granite bases. |
Dorian’s inventiveness applies to his use of materials: he has been recycling long before it became fashionable or de rigueur. People gave him wool so he made sculpture out of it. A friend gave him a lot of bicycle parts, which Dorian has turned into art on display in the office of Kingdom Trails in E. Burke. Acrylic paintings made of the wool sculptures in this show are painted on masonite backs of old notebooks, handed on to Dorian by another friend. Unrelated to the “knots” series is a wall sculpture of knitted pendulous forms hanging from a metal bar like a fiber musical instrument, titled “Ding Dongs”. There are knitted sculptures of heads: Rastafarian, Whistler, Othello & Desdemona. Also, several sculptures are made from painted recycled wood and found or knitted fibers: Ganymede, Mr. Limone, Neanderthal Man and his Dog. One is struck by the cheerful countenances and bright colors of these figures. Dorian is a consummate draughtsman and that talent combined with his unique imagination and use of materials makes him an outstanding artist, and this show well worth a visit to the Northeast Kingdom.
The Show will be up until June 15. Please call for hours, an appointment or further information 802-467-8400.
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