Digital Illustration from the exhibit “Timeless Modern” at Floating World Gallery

OFFICIAL STATEMENT:

Artist Seale by the Bay Window is based on the historic interview of Artie Seale and other activists in the Glasner studio around the time of the Trial of the Chicago 7. Because Miller himself wasn’t present at the Glasner Studio at this particular moment of the home’s story, Dykstra pays homage to other artists from different periods – specifically those connected to Lucy Montgomery who owned the house in the late 1960s through 1990s. Dykstra connects the artist Margaret Taylor Burroughs with Lucy Montgomery and the Glasner Studio through the two women’s strong commitment and investment in civil rights and mutual appreciation. Dykstra took direct inspiration from a linocut by Burroughs called “Black Venus” – a reference to Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus”. That piece, upon close examination, uses tiny pinprick marks to create the highlights on the main figure; which Dykstra connects to the cut lead silhouettes in the Glasner Studio salon’s bay windows.

Wanting to depict Artie Seale as an individual in her own right – as an activist and a historically significant figure in the Glasner Studio’s history -- Dykstra takes further inspiration from Burrough’s work by likewise changing the stance of the depicted Venus from a passive to an active pose. “I decided a reference to her “Black Venus” linocut would be an interesting juxtaposition with the figures in the window and Artie Seale herself,” Dykstra remarks.

Digital Illustration - Personal Work

Tribute to Johann Johannson

I have followed the music of Johann Johannson for a very long time. In the event of his untimely death, I wanted to make something to remember him. The piece 3.3 in the album Virðulegu Forsetar.

Ink on Bristol | Commissioned cover for Issue No. 53 of the DSCH Journal.

“DSCH” are the the musical initials the composer Dmitri Shostakovich gave to himself. Pieces that use that musical anagram are often intensely personal and cryptic. During Stalin’s time, music was restricted to a set of patriotic songs and sounds, but Shostakovich distorted these into his own personal masterpieces, frequently with personal messages for only himself and those close to him, it seems, and many of these are simply lost to time.

My recent zines and prints have a less direct sort of narrative. In “Gestures: Me & Lenin” I created a zine that juxtaposes illustrations of my hand with illustrations of Lenin’s hand drawn from statues created of him. I mostly created it to ask the question, “Can people tell? What happens when you connect these two people of such different contexts?”.

I eventually turned parts of this zine into prints(serigraphs) on marbled paper. The result is a mottled sign – with the gesture fighting against the background or mixing with it.