Art(s) on the Air with Henry Dean
Episode description
Join Tamara for an interview with Henry Dean, who works in various modes (drawing and mixed media works on paper, installation, painting, sculpture, video), and is also a Foundations professor at SCAD.
Our talk centered around his recently completed "Now and Then," a national immersive land-art project inspired by Nature and Cosmos - specifically the April 8th, 2024 total eclipse. As an Arts-Science initiative it imagines Nature and environment as unique and wonderful attributes of the cosmic whole (and was a project two years in the making!).
Henry graduated St. Andrews University, Scotland (1980, MFA honors, Geography and Fine Arts combined), and Savannah College of Art and Design (2003, MFA Painting).
Check out his work and the "Now and Then" project specifically, and follow him here:
https://www.henrydean.art/ https://www.instagram.com/nowandtheneclipse24/
Topics in their chat include:
Before Henry moved from Philadephia to Savannah in 1999, he was mostly making and selling very large, plein air landscape paintings; his theories on why North America has had 2 total eclipses a few years apart, after not having had any for years; we try to wrap our heads around the experience of the Old Masters who created art in obscurity, died, and then were discovered & lauded throughout the world for centuries (!); how a long creative career always involves different waves of work, including transitional periods, and how craftspersonship can carry your work through successfully; coming to see that "Now and Then" was not specifically about the eclipse, but really about people, honoring communities and landscapes, expressing a wonder for nature, shared experiences, and tying communities together; and the details on that project: two years' worth of work and planning, 15 sculptures across 6 locations, driving across the country reaching out to local governments and chambres of commerce to make pitches for an art project that hadn't yet been completely designed.
Tune in and get all the details!