Meet Gallery Artist: Dennis Worrel by Karen Keltz

Dennis Worrel, a co-founder of Arts Accelerated, first got his initiation into art at a young age. He and his cousin sat at the kitchen table and drew pictures for his grandmother. For him, it was something fun to do, and his first audience enjoyed it and encouraged him.
 
Then, in high school, Dennis was instructed by three art teachers with extensive credentials. Even now he recalls one piece of advice that has remained with him—Use the whole canvas, not just a piece of it. Make something happen everywhere.
 
While he remembers being amazed by his first view of Impressionistic paintings and admired the work of students who could paint like famous artists of the past, like a neo- Rembrandt, for example, he knew it wasn’t for him. Instead, he enjoyed the work of Figurative and Funk artists, a California movement. Something in their anti-Renaissance stance, their irreverence for tradition, their experimentation and their use of humor spoke to his teenage self with a unique viewpoint who had something different to say.
 
In university, Dennis studied the sciences and graduated to work in forestry. For him, that work was very much related to his artistic life. “I began to remember what I noticed first in a forest landscape, not individual things, but as a whole. We had to describe things by using color chips and breaking things down according to hue and values, etc. the same way an artist does with paints.”
 
Later in his forestry career, Dennis felt a need to return to his study and practice of art, so attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where he obtained his MFA. During that time, he traveled with a group of students to China when it was just opening up again to the Western world. Here he acquired the idea of a non-linear perspective, the Asian viewpoint of what you see being interpreted as an experience or a journey rather than as what is seen from one vantage. He studied Chinese brush painting and calligraphy for three weeks, which also has informed his later works with the use of lining.  
 
“We could not drive cars, but we went everywhere by bike. If I went by myself, soon I’d be surrounded by a group of people that would start with maybe five and then escalate until there would be a couple hundred people just looking at this tall, blond, white guy, an oddity they’d never seen before. They pulled my hair, and once, my ear. I drew a bear in class, in my style, and they laughed at it.”  They liked the humor in his art.
 
Besides a new idea of lining and use of space, Dennis’ experiences generated the love of textures and different kinds of papers he has today. “This is why I love printmaking, using the lines in art, outlining. I make several layers and the last is the lines, using drypoint, a scratching of the plate. I like to draw a lot.”
 
Besides printmaking, Dennis also draws and paints on raw linen or boards, again using his love of papers and textures. “My subject matter varies from exotic animals in dreamlike landscapes, desert and dense coastal forests to family and historic figures in private and cosmic settings.”


He describes his art as built upon original styles—Funk Art, Asian Art, Folk and Naïve Art--exploring different techniques and methods, like Picasso, taking a picture apart and reassembling it. “I start with something, change it, change it again, like a spiral, until it is finished. My best work has come from me thinking, ‘This sucks!’ and then I kept working on it and letting it evolve. I like seeing what happens with exploration.”
 
Right now he is experimenting with turning photographs into prints, with a process that makes an etching using photopolymer plates and UV light exposure. This creates intaglio plates, which is the start. There is a photo image on the bottom of a print and then the artist can draw on top. He has purchased an old printing machine that does exposures for this photogravure, or photopolymer process. Dennis especially likes to use photos from Greek and Roman mythologies, and then draw over those.
 
He has suggestions for the aspiring artist:  “Allow yourself time and freedom to explore. Be confident, keep working because you won’t be perfect overnight, and observe. Observation, reflection, and play are key elements in my working process.
 
“Set a time for self-discovery. Communicate with the art itself and then your audience. If my piece is interesting to me, then I think it’s fine, but I do think about whether the audience will like it.
 
“While my work often goes through multiple starts, stops, and restarts, it is important for me to keep it looking direct and fresh, and playful. At the end of the day, my intent
is to make work that is accessible and can be enjoyed in the quiet moments of the day.”
 
You can see Dennis’ artwork on display at the gallery at 1906 Third Street in Tillamook, Oregon.