My name is Dale Klein and I am a printmaker and painter. I was born in Buffalo and live and work in Rochester, NY. For 25 years I was a clinical social worker, but I have always been interested in the arts. In 2002 I went back to school and earned a BS in studio art from Nazareth in 2006. In 2010 I received an MFA from Rutgers. I moved back to Rochester in 2011 and have a studio in the Hungerford Building. I also teach at the Creative Workshop at the Memorial Art Gallery.
At Nazareth I was drawn to printmaking because it involves a combination of process and creativity. One of my favorite processes is aquatint, which is how I get the tones in my etchings. This is a process in which I start out with a metal plate (zinc or copper) and progressively dip it into a corrosive acid or salt to etch the plate. The plate is then inked, wiped and printed. I also do relief (woodcut and linocut), monoprints, and collagraphs.
A sense of the place is essential to my work. My primary interest is in the post-industrial landscape in Western New York State. I see it as a metaphor for the entropy that is inevitable in our world. I am influenced by the Precisionist painters of the early 20th century, Charles Sheeler, Ralston Crawford, and Charles Demuth. There is an irony in their optimism about the industrial revolution that has left us in the developed world with so much detritus, which I find both melancholic and beautiful. I tend to work on the boundary of realism and abstraction. I like the viewer to bring their own preconceptions to the work.
At Rutgers, I was encouraged to paint and now I paint also. I find that my painting informs my printmaking and vice versa. I have painted in oils for the last few years, but lately have experimented with acrylics. I paint on canvas and wood panels.
Besides the House and Home exhibit at Main Street Arts I have a piece in the show Echoes of the Past at the University Gallery at RIT, up until August 12. My studio is open most First Fridays, the Hungerford building, 1115 East Main St., Studio 250, 6-9 PM. Please come and visit.
Stop by Main Street Arts to see Dale Klein’s prints in our current exhibition House and Home (runs through August 19). View her work online at www.dalekleinart.com and follow her on Instagram @daleklein7.
