State Fair Winners: Drawings
Dallan Kimberling won the Drawings category this year at the State Fair Fine Arts Show; read on for some details on this interesting artist.
Drawings
Dallan Kimberling, Roseville
Temperance River Short Cut (Prismacolor pencil)
Dallan Kimberling’s fine drawing of the Temperance River on the North Shore won first place in the Drawings category of this year’s Fair; his interest in the natural beauty of the state is still fresh: “I’ve been in Minnesota for five years now; I get such a kick out of the beauty of the place. . . . The light is so beautiful and pristine, the shadows are beautiful—I find the light here different from any other place.”
Kimberling lived in Washington, D.C., before. He describes himself as “self-taught—by all the best teachers.” He’s spent hundreds of hours in the National Gallery in Washington, and often had traveled to New York to the museums and galleries there. He describes his favorite artists – and teachers – as Honore Daumier and Vermeer, especially Vermeer’s cityscapes, a mode Kimberling would like to try. He also loves the work of Rembrandt and, among contemporary artists, Richard Estes. He’s had longtime gallery representation on the East Coast but is still looking for a gallery here.
Retired now because of cancer, Kimberling says that he “draws and paints now, as much as I can. I started doing art seriously 8 or 9 years ago.” His work has been featured in the Fair show before; in fact, the first piece in the series that’s now central to his efforts was in the 2003 show: “Requiem for Three Friends.” This image of three jackets hanging on hooks—the kind of jackets that over the years assume the contours of the wearer’s body—commemorates three of Kimberling’s friends who have died of AIDS. He is currently doing more works in this series, to help people remember that this story isn’t over.