I am very happy with how the shows are working out –far better than I thought possible. It’s because I have people who actually like Kathryn Dyer’s art. Bruce, a local artist, appreciates her
soulful expression and Susan, a local designer, sees proportion and pattern in Kathryn’s work that perhaps only a designer could appreciate.
There’s a certain whimsy in the art of Kathryn Dyer that I never really noticed before. Along with the drama of her chronic depression which appears as a kind of darkness in Kathryn’s art, there was always a bit of wow here and there.
The linocut featuring Adlai Stevenson’s quote “The Life of an Egg-head is Difficult” shows his head rolling around as a chicken egg would in an eccentric way. Also, her pieces of flotsam and jetsam from the sea shores and the Indiana sand dunes hang from her banner prints like little jokes, wry comments, happy serendipity.
The linocut show is called “From Darkness to Light, The Linocuts of Kathryn Dyer.” It was exhibited at Westmont Public Library for six weeks this Fall (2012). Now, a separate linocut show of her Christmas designs –Christmas Cards — she called them will be on exhibit at Lombard Public Library.
Benedictine University will exhibit the linocuts in April, 2013 for four to six weeks. I am delighted with this arrangement. I only wish that Kathryn could see the faces of people as they see her art for the first time. Kathryn Dyer art is finally being exhibited and we are all better for having discovered it.
I collected work by K.Dyer’s son John, including work she gave to me a year or so before she died.
I had contacted her to find what had become of John who I had contact with in the late 70’s as a clerk in the School of the Art Institute. She wanted me to have
whatever I wanted as she felt it would be tossed when she passed away. One of these days I’m going to knuckle down and curate a show of John Dyer. I’ve always felt I didn’t have enough background information needed to properly serve his outstanding drawing and painting.
If you’re still showing his mother’s work I’d love to be on the mailing list and see more of her work. The day I met with her at her home was only an hours visit because she couldn’t continue addressing the memory of her son and had already professed to being a hermit, so I left with more questions than I came with. After, she sent me a letter offering the gift of John’s work.
If you can fill in more of the story I’d be interested in getting this project going after years of neglect. I’m happy to share the work I have if you’d like to see it sometime.