Dancers

“The dancers began emerging out of rush of unexpected dance energy. Suddenly I was dancing a lot, awakening my primary purpose, which is to be a dancer. And then they were also occurring on the canvas. I have never painted figures before, never been interested in that topic despite seeing bodies in class and rehearsal for most of my artistic life. Now suddenly they came out of my brush. I love all the movement filling the canvas.” —Dunya McPherson

‘Dervish’ was selected for the juried exhibition “In Motion: Making Art Dance” at Crooked Tree Arts Center in Petoskey, MI, honoring the 100th anniversary year of Martha Graham Dance Company. The show includes an extensive exhibit of Barbara Morgan’s photographs of Graham as well as a showing of contemporary art in the adjoining gallery curated by Peter Sparling, former Principal Dancer with the Graham Company and painter and videographer himself.

Artist Statement
I think because people know I’m a lifelong dancer, they often remark that my paintings dance. Maybe so, but I paint what I see, and what I truly see is an alive, bubbling, glimmering, singing, magical world that is dancing, and this inspires me. In terms of bringing that onto a canvas, hoping it will breathe and move on the wall, I’m pretty loose with representation. I want more for the piece to find itself and to be strong.
– Dunya Dianne McPherson, Juried Artist

About Dunya Dianne McPherson
Dunya‘s vibrant palette and rich impasto draw us into a weave of motion and immersion. She attributes her ability to ‘receive’ the energy of what she sees then let it fall onto the canvas to her Sufi Dancemeditation practice. Her background as a Juilliard-trained professional dancer and acclaimed choreographer are ever emerging in brushstrokes and composition which glide between Impressionism and Abstraction. Her reverence for nature, woodlands in particular, which she experiences as sacred, illuminate her work. McPherson paints in her Cape Cod home in Woods Hole and her New Mexico wilderness studio.