About My Series
As I’ve worked with dozens of themes, stories and dramatic situations, I’ve realized that my strange and surreal mind wants to ‘stay awhile’ in certain locations and create a variety of images IN that location.
I’m creating all original handmade pieces, and the series pieces are related thematically and contain similar visual elements with slight variations. Some of these “sister” pieces are now forming themselves into groups, or collections that can be hung side by side.
This also allows me to streamline the creative process to keep my work affordable. See more about this here.
My Latest Series:
Portraits in Wire
I’d seen a number of wire sculptures and masks, but wanted to create paintings that were both multi-media and wire compositions. Initially, I was inspired by the artist Alexander Calder, who created mobiles. In first working with wire, it was obvious that wire was a great medium for capturing figures in motion. As I continued to work with various kinds of wire, I realized that the faces of these individual characters became more important. I was intrigued by how the lighting became a whole other element; pieces could be lit from many angles, and that could create shadows that were their own line drawings. One face could become 5 or 6 faces, all having slightly different moods or emotions. Moving lights could also create a kind of animation. Lighting had a great deal to reveal about these characters.
Evidence of Walking
I’ve written a bit about this one over here.
The Tribute Series
There have been many great artists that I’ve felt drawn to over the course of my life. As I’ve gone deeper into my visual art work, I encountered artists whose work spoke to me intimately, and I wanted to apprentice with these great mentors in some way. By studying their work, I’ve created my own version of studying with them. This research taught me so much and I hope these pieces offer up a tribute to their unique styles.
These artists include:
- I have several pieces inspired by Henri Matisse
- “My Mill, My Mill” was inspired by children’s author Goffstein
- My work with wire was inspired by Calder
- My Spiralling Woman series was inspired by The Artists at the Bauhaus – An Architectural Institute in Germany
Recent Series – At the Marriage of Heaven and Earth
Plato talked about a noumenal world of patterns, where all the rules are different. I started thinking about this place between heaven and earth, where anything was possible. Trees could get married, birds could become treetops, clouds could play with one another. Birds and clouds could collaborate and play, and creatures could dream of other worlds build only for them. The seeds of life come from here, creating unique worlds wherever they land.
About My Limited Production Runs
I looked into the idea of making prints of my work to be able to provide pieces at much lower prices. I was disappointed at the loss of colour vibrancy and also of texture and so compromised and created a limited run of original pieces. These works contain an original design that is repeated using original materials, and each piece is numbered much like a run of limited edition prints.
This allows me to maintain the rich colours and textures that I have come to love, but streamlines the creative process so that the pricing can be lower.
Limited Production Runs – Examples
Birches Dance – the Four Seasons – Limited Run
Birch trees have become a kind of warrior within my work, advocating for the forests, uprooting and protesting the state of the natural world. In this series, these activists are taking a well earned break and simply celebrating life. As I worked on these pieces, they somehow organically formed themselves into groups which I realized represented the four seasons.
These groups of four can be collected at a discounted price, if you purchase more than one. The Four Seasons Collection is limited to 10 runs, and the individual pieces are limited to 25. Pieces can be commissioned in either regular or heavy-weight felt.
Coastlines in Red, Black and Grey – Limited Run
It was exciting to explore a more abstract series. These forms, with their precise lines intersecting, felt like boats converging on a coastline. Inlets, fjords and harbours all appeared from these simple, basic elements and limited colours. I took this image into a limited production run because of people’s response to it and their repeated requests for this piece.
These are available in paper and in felt and this run is limited to 25 in each medium.
Series Examples
Dreaming of Letting Go of a Great Dream – Series
I find fascinating the idea that we can, for example, fall asleep and dream dreams, thinking we are relaxing and sunning ourselves on a beach somewhere and yet actually be laying on the tongue of a giant shark about to be swallowed by that dream, that fish.
Birches Uproot and Head for an Old Growth Forest – Series
To my particular brain it makes sense that Birch trees would uproot, shouting, “enough already. We are fed up with breathing all this CO2 from your industrial plants. We’re leaving to find an old growth forest worthy of its name.”
Plato’s Cave – Series
The whole concept that Plato talked about in his ‘cave allegory’ has always been exciting to me. He said, “we are stuck in a cave, chained to a wall, able only to look straight ahead. Behind us and unseen by us are fires and people walking who cast large shadows on the cave wall in front of us as they move. We think these shadows are real. We begin to form our reality around their existence.”
Whales in Trees – Series
I am intoxicated, at times, by whales floating, listening, below the surface and wonder what they think we are up to. What is their world like, with and without us in it? To link them somehow with animals and their silent allies, trees, with all their leaves, their branches, their roots seems important from the point of view of touch, of communication, of inclusion.
So many stories worth telling, so many dramatic locations worthy of their name.
Dean Fogal 