Dean McDowell interview - 2011

Name: Dean McDowell
Place of birth: Northern Ireland

Black Cat: Hi Dean, please introduce yourself. Could you tell us where you’re from and how you got started in the field?
Dean McDowell: I was born and currently reside in Northern Ireland. Art has always held a fascination, from an early age I was forever doodling or creating some sort of imagery but it wasn’t until I got my first taste of American comics that I started to really get excited about the possibility that art could be a career choice. Growing up in Northern Ireland at the height of the bomb and bullet years I found art somewhat of a release, a diversion to what was happening around me at that time. Art almost seemed to remove me from that situation but inevitably the ‘troubles’ would seep into my work giving that darkness that is now commonplace in a lot of my paintings.

B.C.: When did you decide painting was a career path that you wanted to follow?
D.M.: While attending high school I made a decision to follow an artistic career path and somewhat directed my education toward that path. However, as I’m sure many people are aware, life is never straight forward. With a distinct lack of job security for young artists trying to make a living in Northern Ireland, I decided to follow the graphic design route and attended college studying for a degree in graphics. Although I still maintained an interest in painting throughout my time in college, it wasn’t until I totally removed myself from the graphics industry that I really started to focus on art and tried to forge both a style and career. It was and is a tough road for anyone to follow, the art world is very much one of individual perception and interpretation. On a personal level I simply base my work around subjects that hold a meaning for me, the style must fit the subject.

B.C.: When you consider contemporary artists, who has recently caught your interest or imagination?
D.M.: There are so many amazing contemporary artists at present, I feel the blurring of the line between fine art and low brow is helping to cast a light onto these wonderful individuals and give the artwork they produce a much larger audience. When I think of contemporary artists some names automatically spring to mind, Mark Ryden, Michael Hussar, Shawn Barber to name but a mere few. Really, I could spend all day listing the names of contemporary artists whose work I admire, my facebook page is full of such talented individuals. My only problem with the current contemporary or low brow scene is the publications and websites that seem to feature the ‘chosen few artists’ on a near monthly basis. I want to get excited about new art and artists, what I don’t want is to read the third interview in a row by the same artist, that drives me insane. Yes, there are many wonderful publications and sites highlighting the ‘new breed’, I mean I must give kudos to the likes of Hi Fructose, Creep Machine, Cataplut, Eclectix and there are many others but it seems they are the exception rather than the norm.

B.C.: Your work has a distinctive look — would you say you have a personal identifiable style?
D.M.: That is such a difficult question for me to answer. I have created, modified and viewed my style of work for so long it will always have a distinctive look for me personally; as regards being identifiable to others I’m really not sure. It’s a question I have never asked or for that matter had feedback on. Maybe now that someone has read this article I will get an answer to the question. It’s certainly an interesting one, when I’m checking out art forums, sites or the printed media I see so many similar styles, a good example is Sas Christian. I absolutely love her work but I see more and more artists’s influenced by it, I’ve never spoken to her regarding this but I do think it’s becoming more common place. Who knows, maybe if my work is currently distinctive perhaps in the next few years it will be lost among the many of a similar style.

B.C.: Female portraits are clearly a major focus of your work. What`s the current motivation behind your art?
D.M.: Emotion, or more accurately put, hidden emotions. I love playing with the idea of capturing that inner turmoil be it melancholy, anger or simply mischief. It’s something that has always fascinated me and throughout my career I’ve struggled to place what is within my mind onto the canvas. That struggle can often add something to a final work, the frustration and uncertainty I often feel manifests itself and almost mocks at times. The current theme running through my works is a further step in this direction but also playing with war symbolism to a certain extent I can expand on the themes. I want the viewer to question the purpose of the physical sometimes distorted features of each subject, as with most things in this life, not everything is simple and straight forward.

B.C.: The colours that you use to paint some parts of the women’s face are unnatural. Which is the meaning of this choice? Is it just an aesthetic choice or it tells something more?
D.M.: The palette I use has developed over a long period of time and is based on the emotional themes I focus on during the creation of a painting. While studying the physical aspects of emotion I started to relate certain colours to differing moods and would use those colours and tones to build the mood of the painting. With some of my early works I struggled with a realism that would creep into the work because of my graphics background, basically the finished paintings were looking too ‘real’, almost portrature. That was not what I was trying to achieve so for quite some time I experimented with differing techniques trying to find that fine line between impressionism and realism.

B.C.: What media typically goes into a normal piece, and how long does a piece on average take you to complete?
D.M.: The media is dependent on the timeframe for each individual work; I generally use either oils or acrylic on canvas. If deadlines are involved I tend to use acrylics simply for the speed for which they can be worked. That said, I am an extremely slow painter and don’t produce that many works throughout a year. I couldn’t even guess at an average time per painting, I have some works in the studio that have been in a state of development for a couple of years. In fact my studio is coming down with unfinished works; sometimes I just want to get the basics of these ideas on canvas. At the beginning of this year I promised myself I’d get on top of things, get all these painting finished and substantially increase my work output.

B.C.: Are you good under pressure?
D.M.: It seems I’m constantly under pressure, forever chasing deadlines. It’s not something I enjoy or that I’m particularly good when under pressure it just seems I’m forever putting myself in that situation. It does of course cause endless problems as many works are created with oils, not the quickest medium to work with. I think that if I didn’t have the added pressure of deadlines I might not ever finish a painting, I’m constantly dabbling with unfinished works always striving to make it that bit better. I do have a tendency to destroy a lot of paintings I’m not happy with so perhaps no, I’m possibly not the greatest under pressure.

B.C.: Do you have a dark side? …And if it is so…do you think that through your paintings you are able to express your dark side?
D.M.: I feel we all have a dark side, repressed or otherwise. Within this world in which we live you cannot help but be effected by the imagery portrayed by the media, for the most part that imagery is one of darkness, sorrow and the atrocities of man. My paintings tend to deal with those who have been touched by that darkness and perhaps on occasion might be the cause of it. It’s hard to keep that dark emotion out of my work, growing up in a country that allowed atrocities to happen on a daily basis is always going to affect the inner psyche on some level. The paintings are not so much a release of my own inner darkness but rather my portrayal of inner emotions masked by others, people who have been directly or indirectly affected yet bury those dark emotions deep within. Or course each painting differs and I leave it up to the viewer to find their own meaning and interpret each painting on an individual basis and how the subject matter might relate to them.

B.C.: What’s your dream project?
D.M.: It’s quite possible that I passed up the opportunity to work on a dream project towards the end of last year, 2011. I was contacted by a popular US based comic publisher to work on an upcoming project, the project was quite early in the development stage at that time. As I understood they wanted me to work on the initial cover artwork, depending on the work produced it would either be used for the actual print run or as variant editions. Obviously being a comic fan and as I’ve previously alluded to, comics were one of the reason why I became serious about art, I would normally have jumped at the chance but due to my work schedule I just couldn’t commit. I really didn’t get very many details regarding the project and can only hope that the same type of opportunity arises in the future when my schedule is less hectic.

B.C.: Thanks Dean, your women are very particular and charming, it’s very difficult not to love them! Good work.

Weblinks
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100027732146230
http://www.deanmcdowell.com/

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