By Dan Breen

Adventure and exploration are as important to Dorothy Graden’s art as brush, pigment and paper. Her art inspired by the petroglyphs she finds after scrambling over boulders at the end of a dusty trail. You will also find sea life she observes when scuba diving flowing in borders and backgrounds.

Dorothy Graden’s art canvases were found and repurposed growing up in Gary, Indiana. She walked the allies at ten years old looking for wood. She painted the wood black adding bright color on top. What she created was abstract. “I would use a lot of color and wild shapes,” says Graden. She loved color as a young woman making her art pop.

Experiences from Graden’s childhood inform her current work. “I spent a lot of time in church looking at stained glass,” said Graden. She observed the black led lines separated the pains of color in the religious windows. She thinks the stained glass influences her current work. She uses black lines to separate color so each color can have its own space.

Graden was a kindergarten teacher for 25 years. She taught half days then went home in the afternoon and created collages, stained glass and dabbled in different mediums. When the corporation asked her to teach full days, she tried it for a year. Graden found time for her art disrupted. Six years ago she left teaching and committed full time to art.

Dorothy has been hiking the west and seeking out petroglyphs for more than 30 years. Her adventures have taken her from Texas to Wyoming. “It was about the time I left teaching I was hiking around Thermopolis, Wyoming. I was around the Soshone Reservation when I came across these three petroglyphs. They were all facing a lake. Shoshone use them in ceremony. The petroglyphs were detailed with lines and interior images. The drawings were scary, but they drew me in,” said Graden. “Petroglyphs have power, you can feel it. When I came home I started to draw the images in indian ink.”

Graden studied the Japanese art of art form of Ukiyoe or the floating worlds. “Ukiyoe is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Artists produced wood block prints and paintings.” (Wikipedia) “I spent a lot of time copying Ukiyoe prints. I noticed the lines all seemed to have a life and a purpose. The lines would flow from narrow to wide. I noticed the petroglyphs and the Ukiyoe had similarity,”

She began to make her drawings larger. Some friends said add some color. She started making her own paper and adding pigments to the paper.

The art has evolved. Graden is very tactile and likes to touch walls and fabrics. As a result she began taking paper making classes at Hook Pottery Paper in Laporte, Indiana. Andrea Peterson, owner Hook, taught me how to add pigment to the paper after it was pulled. “I looked at the pigmented paper and thought; I can actually recreate the texture of the rock walls in the boulders and canyons.” The paper is cotton rag in the mold. She pulls the paper white, and while it is still mushy she begins to add what she calls cream of wheat. It is a finer mixture of the cotton rag. She makes 20 pots of cream of wheat color before she begins making the paper. She makes her own stencils, and pours pigments on top of the stencils to create more texture. “If you look closely, you can see the stencils in the pictures. When you look at my paper you look into it and you can see layers that I pile on with the pigments.”

“I’ve seen thousands of petroglyphs, says Graden. “My work is becoming more intuitive.” Graden works for 5 to 6 hours a day in her studio. “I feel the images of all the petroglyphs I have seen are becoming more a part of me. I work with a purpose in mind, sometimes things appear I did not intend.” (Look for the red spirit in the painting “Conscious Duality”.)

“At the end of the day I set the painting across the room. I observe my work from a distance and make notes for the next session. I consider what colors or patterns I should use. It is a continuous creative process. I am problem solving the entire creative process. In the end I am often surprised by the outcome.”

Graden says her art originates when she knows the image she wants to create. As she makes the paper, she plans the background and leaves room for the image. Sometimes she is unsure of the image she wants to create. “I make the paper, then come home and look through my photos of petroglyphs. I’ll say, who wants to be in this painting?” She says, “Sometimes inspiration doesn’t happen and you have to put brush to paper.”

Graden says she has been hiking out west for about 30 years. “Some of my favorite sites are Legend Rock, Wyoming, Hueco Tanks, Texas and the Great Gallery, Utah.” She explored many other interesting sites but they are private or hard to access. Graden explains before the internet she would find an area to visit and call the Bureau of Land Management. She would ask to meet with the archeologist when she arrived in the area. “I spend a lot of time building trust,” says Graden. Building trust and getting to know people is important to Graden. She uses the same method when meeting owners of galleries. She believes knowing someone’s story is important.

Often the archeologist would take Graden out for a tour of the sites. Sometimes the petroglyphs are on private property. “I would have to reach out to ranchers to get permission to see the petroglyphs.” She told me a story about a rancher who took her to see the paintings at Little Big Horn. Later she was invited for dinner with the family. “Developing relationships is important. Vandalism of the sites is getting worse, and people who own property are becoming very protective.”

I asked a Graden what she would tell an artist just starting out on their journey.

“You have to be honest and authentic. Don’t wait for inspiration, keep working and painting. Working will cause ideas to pop into your head. You will be amazed at what you produce. You have to be curious and considerate. You have to build relationships. It is not just a business. You have to know personal stories and build trust.”

Dorothy Gradens art is showing at the Lubeznik 101 W 2nd St # 100, Michigan City, Indiana through November.

You can find Graden’s art at dorothygraden.com.

You can purchase Graden’s art at dorothygraden-buy.com

Dorothy Graden: Adventure and Art

By Dan Breen