Lynn Small and Dennis Paul (D. Paul/Small) : Long Island/Hamptons Portfolio

  
Lynn Small is an honors graduate of The High School of Music and Art, NYC, and New York University, where she studied with such renowned artists as Milton Resnick, Esteban Vicente, Hale Woodruff, and Robert Kaupelis.

In the early 1970s, while living and working in Spain, she began work on the Earth Stains series, an ongoing body of work that has evolved into the collaborative multimedia installations—Earth Elegies. In the mid-1970s, she began a series of anthropological, God-like imagery while living in Cuernavaca, Mexico. This major body of work would later be the inspiration for her current Southwest Spirit Guides series.

Dennis Paul's art work began while he was pursuing graduate studies in psychology at The City University of New York. In addition to his artistic endeavors, he has also worked as an arts administrator and consultant. In the late 1970s, he established the Development Office at the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, under Commissioner Henry Geldzahler. He also created the Development and Fundraising curriculum for the Graduate Program of Museum Studies, New York University, in 1980, teaching until 1985.

In the mid-1970s, as Fashion Metamorphosis, Lynn Small and Dennis Paul were involved in the NYC fashion industry, where they incorporated various art techniques into the design of women's apparel. This undertaking represented the earliest of their collaborations and carried over into the creation of a third artist which they birthed in the fall of 1978 at Yaddo, during joint residency fellowships at this creative community in Saratoga Springs, NY. This third artist, which they exhibit under the moniker, D. Paul/Small, represents a fusion of painting, photography, mixed media, and digital processes.

The artists have lived and exhibited in New York, Europe, Mexico, and most recently, Los Angeles. Their work has been shown in numerous gallery and museum exhibitions. They have lectured at such places as the Museum of the City of Mexico, Art Institute of Chicago and, most recently, Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. The couple has received various grants, awards and commissions. Their work is represented in public and private collections both in the United States and abroad.

During the past years, D. Paul/Small have opened their collaborative artwork further to include writers, musicians and visual artists of our own time, as well as those from previous generations. This has helped them in their efforts to blend various disciplines and has also brought an additional gift—a fuller understanding of the creative spirit within us all.

Their mixed-media efforts have always incorporated contemporary photography, as well as 19th-Century non-silver processes with painting, drawing and printmaking. With the inclusion of naturally occurring elements from specific sites, sculptural elements have begun to play an expanded role in their overall concerns. In an ongoing narrative that references the historical lineage of the American landscape, environmental issues and concerns are an essential element. Their Earth series encourages reflection upon the various implications inherent in the utilization of the Earth's natural resources. It reflects the spiritual nature of all creation and encompasses both individual and collaborative works. The multimedia, site-specific installation series, Earth Elegies: The Threads That Bind Us, In The Beginning, and the works-in-progress, Voice of the Landscape and Coastal UpLift, explores the new frontiers of the digital dialectic utilizing multiple video projections, SoundScapes, Web interactivity, and the latest print processes, allowing them to change forever the boundaries within which they create.

From D. Paul/Small:

"This series, created within a period of years from the mid-1980s to 1990, began as we approach all of our landscape body of work—capturing a sense of place that is both site specific and universal while referencing the historical aspects as well. Long Island, particularly the East End with its special quality of light, was a rich source for ideas and creation. We focused our efforts on the water fowl, the expansiveness of the waterways and ocean, and on the last remaining vestiges of the once abundant farmlands. We captured some of the latter and the last windmill in the East End. We walked similar pathways that artists of the past and present walked—William Merrit Chase, the American impressionist, founded The Art School in the Shinnecock Hills at the turn of the last century that continues to this day. Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, Eric Fischl, and Julian Schnabel are among the artists who have lived and worked in the region."

"The landscape work is often difficult and time consuming. Our desire to capture a sense of place particular to a specific region, yet release more universal memory traces, makes a difficult task even more so."

To collaborate with the artists on one of the oldest pieces of interactive literature on the web and create your own unique poem, go to www.viewart.com/colabart/poem.htm, where you can add your voice to "The Tapestry of Hope," a meditative prayer for the future well-being of the Earth. Your poem will become a part of a world-wide archive.

For further information, visit the D. Paul/Small website at www.viewart.com/coLabART.