About The Artist
Dennis Curry's career as an artist had its earliest beginnings in childhood, combining his interest in nature with drawing. It continued to take form in 1964, when he traveled extensively throughout the United States, sketching his impressions in pencil and ink. While working on a ranch in Colorado, he was inspired by a reproduction of an old etching he saw in a cowtown saloon depicting a stormy mountain lake setting in which a terrified elk was being held at bay by wolves. Captivated by the technique, atmosphere and majesty conveyed only in black and shades of gray, he remembers this as the first major influence on the direction of his art.
In 1966, he was drafted into the Army, serving in Vietnam with the 25th Infantry Division, Supply and Transportation Battalion as a draftsman. A high-ranking officer took note of his work and recommended him for the Combat Artists Program, with which he subsequently became affiliated. This recognition as an artist let him to begin thinking seriously about art as his life's work.
After completing his military service, he found employment as a commercial artist in the graphics and display industry. During this period, he learned design and composition and was introduced to the hand print medium of silk-screen, which he began to experiment with in the creation of his images.
In 1971, he enrolled in Santa Monica College and joined "Workshop i.e."in Venice, California, an artist's cooperative offering facilities and classes in all original hand printmaking media. He became fascinated with intaglio, and moved from silk-screen to etching and engraving. By 1974, he had temporarily abandoned the use of color to produce monochromatic intaglio images. The elk print, still imbedded in his memory, served as the inspiration to explore the linear and tonal qualities that could only be obtained by working directly on the copper plate. He began to reintroduce the use of color into his etchings in 1980. That same year he met Sid Frances, an early pioneer in the technique generally known as mylar lithography, and produced his first lithograph on Mr. Frances' 30" Harris offset press.
In 1985, after working with Mr. Frances to produce several editions, Dennis acquired the press and moved it to Cambria, California, where he established Blue Berry Press. Having his own press has allowed a much deeper mastery of the relatively new medium of mylar lithography, resulting in works that best utilize its potential for detail and delicacy of tone. Joined to the fine draftsmanship skills that have become a hallmark of his work, Dennis Curry's prints are now nationally and internationally known and sought after.
Mr. Curry's interest in wildlife and the environment was further expanded as a result of his first safari to Africa in 1982. This experience deepened his desire to convey through his work the spiritual impact he felt from being with animals in their natural environment. Since that first trip he returns nearly every year, and increasingly commits funds from the sale of his works to the preservation and maintenance of these unique creatures and their habitat.
"Yes", I Love This Work !!!
| Return to Main Gallery Entrance | Contact the Gallery |
VERLANGIERI Media/Gallery 2000