Cube Roots: Local artist Patrick Dengate draws inspiration from nature, architecture, and ancient artifacts to create colorful, vibrant cubist works.
Story and photos by Jeff Lilly
Patrick Dengate is Michigan born and raised, but he’s chosen the entire world for his palette.
“I’m inspired by nature, and influenced by my travels.” Dengate says, on a sunny morning the day after the big snowstorm. We’re standing in the gallery attached to Level One Bank on Woodward, looking over a collection of the Ferndale-based artist’s recent work, rendered in a style heavily influenced by cubism, awash with stunning, fetching color combinations.
I stand before one painting, my eyes tracking this way and that over a collection of slashing lines, orderly circles and wedges, in shades of silver and blue. My eye wanders up to the top, and I suddenly recognize the sweep of a knight’s helmet. Now the rest of the picture comes together. A gauntlet here, greaves there. I look to the tag, find that this one was born close to home, in the armor collection from the DIA.
Moving along the other paintings, we take a trip around the world. A series from Costa Rica swims in the vibrant colors of that land; white houses with red roofs near a tranquil bay, the hard geometry of the houses dancing with the round shapes of trees. A pair of scarlet macaws emerge whole from a shattered cubist mirror of jungle colors. In the next section, there are the more subdued earthy hues of the southwestern U.S. deserts, one of Dengate’s favorite subjects. The largest canvas is a stunning study of Notre Dame Cathedral at night. Boats, petroglyphs, lily pads, fossils at a museum, all have their turn. One of my favorites is a study of New York Harbor; the lines of a ship emerge from the geometric noise as gray blocks of skyscrapers and swooping lines of suspension bridge cables soar overhead. These are works made for study, for contemplation, not just pretty things to hang on your wall.
“I’ve been drawing since I was a little kid.” Dengate recalls. “Obsessively, in fact. When I was in kindergarten, they sometimes had to take away my crayons and pencils so I’d pay attention.” He continued with his obsession, until one day, in a college physics class, while he sat drawing on his paper, “I decided that was it. I was going to study art.” He transferred to Wayne State and got a BFA in fine arts. We talk a bit about influences. Besides inspiration from artists of the early 20th Century, especially Lyonel Feininger and Franz
Marc, “My most influential mentors at Wayne State were Douglas Semivan, James Nawara, and Stanley Rosenthal.”
After graduation, Dengate spent fifteen years specializing in woodcuts, until pain and stiffness in his arm and hand forced him to try “something less strenuous.” He switched to painting, working in a realistic style for several years before moving into cubism.
“The earliest cubists had a specific, formulaic way of working.” Dengate says. “I don’t. For me, this style is about freeing myself with color, dealing with form and composition in a less traditional way.”
So what’s next? Dengate smiles wryly. “Sometimes, I want to quit art and become a boat builder.” He actually has built a couple of boats, he says, as well as finding time to make music, playing the banjo and guitar. He admits that he doesn’t have any big plans, but is at a point in his life where he is reassessing where he’s at, while continuing to explore and see where the moment takes him. He’s pleased with his most recent series, where he uses motifs from related artifacts as references and interprets them into “collages” on canvas. He shows me one in the current exhibition that’s composed of designs from Polynesian art he photographed at the Field Museum in Chicago. He’s got a work on the easel at home that will feature medieval European objects and motifs.
“We’re all making things… knitting, baking, art.” Dengate says. “It’s what it means to be human.” Patrick Dengate is very happy to be making his art, and sharing it with an audience. Just don’t anyone dare try to take his crayons away.
Patrick Dengate’s works will be on display at the gallery in Level One Bank from now until February 22. Level One Bank is located at 22635 Woodward Avenue. The Gallery is open during bank hours, Monday thru Thursday 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. and Friday from 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.
Visit the artist’s website at www.patrickdengate.com
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