Dagne began her long walk on February 3, 1931 and reached her destination on April 21, 2014. The genius of her artistry and the generosity of her matriarchy gave cause for her to be widely loved and often celebrated during the time she shared with us. Her artwork remains on the walls of fortunate people across the country. Her spirit remains as well, in the hearts of the many people that loved her and were loved in return.
"It seems to me that the artist's work serves best as his statement without the possibly confusing factor of verbal pondering. However, thinking on the elements in my life and my psyche which seem to be most operative in producing my work the primary ones seem to be:
1. Encouragement from my parents, artists themselves, without insistance or unsolicited advice, through my childhood and beyond.
2. My lifelong fascination with people and our infinite variety of manifestations.
3. Over fifty years of being a mother, up close and personal, of six children. Because of this my approach to completing work involved using such time as I had available in the most efficient and productive way I could manage-completing artwork in the one or two hour increments allowed by my children's nap times and after they went to bed. The cumulative effect of this use of time and observation has served me well. It has taught me to look fast, see what I'm looking at, understand it, and convey structure and spirit with selective economy.
An unanticipated but treasured benefit of having spent a lifetime studying, absorbing, and conveying my impressions of the vast variety of the human presence has been the ancillary opportunity to learn more about myself and to understand that those who were my subjects also came to have an expanded understanding of who they might be."
Dagne, 2006
If you haven't seen Dagne's art beyond the electronic confines of the Internet and would like to see some for yourself tours of her studio may be arranged for qualified persons.
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