Art & Life with Dennis Kleidon

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dennis Kleidon.

Dennis, please share your story with us. 
I wish I could take you with me to Taliesin West on a lovely cool winter morning, bright with Arizona sunshine, the kind of morning that makes tourists flock to Phoenix, and that moved Frank Lloyd Wright to build his home and school here.

It was inspiring. It began in the most typical way with a docent talking about Taliesin’s desert concrete and pointing out the massive boulders clearly visible on both exterior and interior walls. These, the docent said, were selected by Wright’s apprentices, chosen from his land and transported to the site to be integrated into the wall construction. I reflected on the aesthetic decisions made by his students in choosing those boulders as well as the work and energy needed to move the boulders to the construction site. The boulders, surrounded by concrete, struck me with their beauty and their texture. It was clear how these natural materials reflected Wright’s respect for nature, truth, and beauty. The boulders make Taliesin West part of its site in the most literal way possible, organic architecture to its core.

As a fine art painter and graphic designer for decades, I have experimented endlessly, and now I wanted to bring the beauty of these Taliesin textures and their earthy sienna, umber and gray hues into my paintings. I began painting in this palette and soon investigated the touches of reds, crimsons, and oranges within the earthier colors. A close examination of the boulders reveals additional, unexpected colors – blues, turquoise and grays. As the sun reflects on them, it enhances these highlights, and soon the colors of the sky became part of my Textures of Taliesin work as well. The textures create a “wall” for mid-field geometric shapes painted next, like a building in shadow or the geometry of an architectural plan.

Most often it takes fifteen to twenty layers of stippled paint to build up boulder-like textural backgrounds in my Taliesin Series paintings. I work back and forth with overlays of colors until I am satisfied with the hue and complexity of the texture. This textural background is echoed in a geometric mid-ground and culminates in a bold series of brushstrokes. With a few final strokes of the brush, the spirit of the painting is revealed. Resting on the textured, stone-like surfaces, the action-painted symbols may take on simple, petroglyph-like forms, show the influence of Asian calligraphy or transcend into the movement of music, dance or poetry, meaning within meaning.

From the monumental Guggenheim Museum and Unity Temple to his wonderful homes in Oak Park, Illinois, and schools at Taliesin West and East, Wright has been an influence on me throughout my career as a designer and artist. People say “the devil is in the details,” but nothing could be further from the truth. The expression comes from an earlier one, “God is in the details,” and to me, that means beauty is in the details. The details express the fabric of a design and both the details and the design must co-exist in unity. In painting this series of Taliesin paintings, three elements rise to the surface, critical to the impact of the paintings – the composition and movement of the background texture, inspired by the surface of the boulders of the Taliesin walls, the geometry in the middle ground like architectural forms within the natural environment, and the final expressive stokes of the brush capturing the creative spirit. Frank Lloyd Wright has left us with an enduring legacy – most directly in architecture, but also in his love of nature and respect for creativity in all of its forms. Wright said, “Integrity is the first law of the spirit,” and my paintings seek to express a similar structure of values, of enlightened ways to see and respond to the universe.

Wright said, “I believe a house is more a home by being a work of art.” In this and so many ways, our lives are enhanced by beauty; our living and working environments must reinforce our daily experience in both function and aesthetics. Many philosophers have said, in many ways, that when our actions and our beliefs are in alignment, we find happiness. I would add that when our beliefs and actions are reinforced by beauty, our lives are enriched immeasurably.

My paintings are abstract. Consequently, they express a mood, a feeling, and expression, not a realistic image, but a reference to the natural beauty of our environment and the wonders that often go unseen. The greatest challenge in capturing the spirit of Taliesin West was not only in creating a convincing textured color palette but in balancing the design to reflect the purity of Wright’s design sensitivity. I will probably continue trying to achieve that sense of balance my entire life.

Dennis Kleidon is a professor emeritus, the developer of Designer Grids, and the co-founder of Kleidon & Associates, a marketing communications firm repeatedly recognized for excellence in design. He has visited Wright’s buildings throughout the country and studied Wright’s drawings and designs for decades. As a student of building construction, architecture, graphic design and art, and as a professor teaching courses in technical drawing and graphic design at the University of Illinois and the University of Akron, Kleidon has been an admirer of Frank Lloyd Wright for decades and has tried to emulate, both in teaching and in practice, Wright’s sense of excellence in design. He has trained students in graphic design and in the design of trademarks, symbols, and logotypes and worked with corporations to create the carefully wrought designs at the heart of branding.

Kleidon says, “Frank Lloyd Wright is America’s greatest architect because of his dedication to truth as an architect and to the integrity of design. Taliesin West is a testament to that spirit of truth. When I enter the drafting room at Taliesin West, I see an environment of hope and imagination, where the seeds of creativity are nurtured and eventually blossom into reality. It’s where dreams are realized. Frank Lloyd Wright has left us an enduring legacy, expressed in his belief that ‘Truth is Life.’ In my paintings, I attempt to live within this spirit.”

Several of Kleidon’s Textures of Taliesin paintings will appear in New York City at the Walter Wickiser Gallery at 210 Eleventh Avenue. The opening reception is June 21 from 6-8 PM, and the public is invited. The show will be up until August 15. For directions and hours, visit www.walterwickisergallery.com.

Artists rarely, if ever pursue art for the money. Nonetheless, we all have bills and responsibilities and many aspiring artists are discouraged from pursuing art due to financial reasons. Any advice or thoughts you’d like to share with prospective artists?
I was fortunate to be able to have a career as a professor at the University of Illinois and the University of Akron. Teaching art and design has allowed me to use my professional talents and knowledge to help students develop skills and a foundation of aesthetics that will help them throughout their professional life. I have also founded Kleidon & Associates, a marketing communications firm in Akron, Ohio where I have been able to use my talents as a graphic designer throughout my career.

It is difficult to find financial rewards as an artist without sacrificing your artistic integrity. I paint what I want to paint and what inspires me to create a sense of beauty, visual organization, and excitement in my work. I am inspired by others in the art and design industry such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Kline, Richard Diebenkorn, Robert Motherwell and others who set the stage for abstract expressionist art and contemporary design. Making money and creating art creates a conflict. You need to decide who you are working for – buyers or yourself. I do not choose to work for art buyers, because I refuse to paint what people think is art. My art is abstract. It expresses my experience in life and my feelings. This has nothing to do with painting what is visual reality. Therefore, I do not paint mountains, flowers and cactus and others things that have a subjective reality. If you want an image of a mountain, photograph it. It will be more real. If you want an expression of what it feels like to experience the mountain, its dynamics, its mass and its relationship to humanity, then express it through abstract thinking and abstract art.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
Walter Wickiser Gallery
210 11th Avenue, Suite 303
New York, New York 10001

Framed Expressions
13527 W. Camino Del Sol
Sun City West, Arizona 85375

Kleidon Studio
17135 W. Links Drive
Surprise, Arizona 85387
(By Appointment)
330-329-7408

Kleidon & Associates
3517 Embassy Parkway
Akron, Ohio 44333
(By Appointment)
330-329-7408

A list of exhibitions can be seen at my website.

Contact Info:

• Address: 17135 W. Links Drive, Surprise, Arizona 85387
• Website: www.denniskleidon.com
• Phone: 330-329-7408
• Email: dennis@kleidon.com

Image Credit:
Dennis Kleidon

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