Check out Edna Dapo’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Edna Dapo.

Edna, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I became an artist in Dubrovnik, Croatia while I was attending an art high school there called Art School Luka Sorkocevic. I was born in the former Yugoslavia, in the town of Mostar. These two beautiful towns have seen some good days and bad days, specifically my generation has experienced the recent war in the 1990s. Today they are tourist hubs; Dubrovnik has gained extreme popularity from the Game of Thrones show. When I was studying art there, we were lucky we had the city to explore without so many tourists, and paint it. Under the guiding light of my professor Davor Lucianovic, over a dozen of us classmates made art in various ways; we painted landscapes in the nearby park, painted studies of Dubrovnik’s architecture, still-lives and figures in the studio. In 1998, I moved to Phoenix, AZ and continued studying art at Scottsdale Community College. I had the pleasure of learning from local Scottsdale artists, Robert You and Gloria Gaddis. In a full circle, I came back to this college to teach a Figure Drawing class in 2010.

I transferred to Arizona State University where I obtained a BFA in painting in 2003. I continued studying painting and drawing from professors: Anthony Pessler, Henry Schoebel, Diana Clauss, Jerry Schutte, Robert Cocke – all great Arizona artists with national recognition. My formal studies concluded at SCAD, Savannah College of Art and Design, where I gained a MFA in Painting in 2007. But the study of art never concludes. I continue to study art and learn from observing nature, figure, and from my teaching. My students are great teachers and I firmly believe that nothing teaches you like teaching.

Since 2007, I have been teaching classes at the Phoenix Center for the Arts, where I am a Department Head of Painting and Drawing. Currently I teach 150 adult students a week; a drawing college class at Mesa Community College, and twelve painting/figure classes at the Phoenix Center for the Arts (www.phoenixcenterforthearts.org).

Aside from teaching, I keep busy in the art world. I have been interested in the art of curating, and have organized various local group art shows in Phoenix. I continue creating artwork and participate in art opportunities. My work will be featured in a solo show and a two-person show in 2019. This year, I was a finalist for the Phoenix Mayor’s Art Award, which was an incredible honor.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
The main orientation in my work has been the Figure. Lately, I have been focusing on the series titled “Space and Time.” It consists of miniature scale paintings depicting infinite space, and the human condition as infinitesimal within it. The insignificance of human life compared to the vastness of space, creates a desperation to create something worthy of our short time on earth.

My work is on a constant search for the answers through the meditative qualities of paint: “Why are we here,” “Are we alone,”” How to create a world that is better for us being in it?” I try to express these big ideas onto the tiniest of canvases, miniature cosmos on 4×6 and 5×7 inches. To make these, I am experimenting with a mixture of water-soluble inks, acrylics, oils, wipe-off tools, toothpicks and q-tips, mixing mediums, oil glazes with a steady hand. Under a magnifying glass, between heartbeats, I hold my breath and work with the smallest brushes.

In the time when we all are looking at our differences as people, I hope my paintings remind us of our own limits and insignificance in the terms of infinite universe. We are extremely small, and our differences minute and unimportant. Our time is limited in limitless space and we should use it to help each other.

How can artists connect with other artists?
Teach a class or take a class! There are many opportunities to socialize, and one of the best places is where I work: Phoenix Center for the Arts. I took a ceramics class there myself and it was a blast. It is important to have an art community and support.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
March through May, 2019. Burton Barr Central Library’s @Central Gallery, Phoenix, AZ. Two-person show.

Contact Info:

• Address: Phoenix Center for the Arts
  1202 N 3rd St, Phoenix AZ 85004
• Website: www.ednadapo.com
• Instagram: @ednadapoartist
• Facebook: ednadapoartist

Image Credit:
AB Williams Photography

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