Much has been written about Dahlov's life (the biography on her website is a good introduction); the focus here is her 100th year, which we expected would build to her 100th birthday on November 12, 2017. Sadly that was not to be.
It's with great sadness that we announce Dahlov's passing, yesterday, February 10th, 2017.
She spent the morning at her easel; fielded a few calls with her son Bob pertaining to a sit down interview for a publication; worked with her son Charlie on any number of projects related to upcoming exhibits. In the late afternoon she bid good day to her home health aide but early in the evening she was gone.
At age 99 she worked right up to the end, doing what she loved. We should all be so lucky - but it hurts just the same. May she forever be with the wondrous beasts of her imagination, that magical realm that knows no beginning or end. She left us a remarkable world to remember her by.
This is the painting she was working on that morning, "Garden of Eden-3":
The following weekend, we invited a few of Dahlov's friends over to foster some of her many plants. Not surprisingly, it was a very emotional day - but with lots of laughter as well as tears. And at the end, Charlie challenged the Chess Club Gang to go tobogganing in the field in front of the farm (we refer to them as that because sons Matthew and Thomas played chess with Dahlov for at least 8 years). Here are Matthew, Thomas, Sally and dad Rob, ready for first run:
And it wasn't just the younger generation who tried out the old family toboggan - though not everyone wanted pictures of the adventure! The weather was perfect - and it really was the perfect ending to the day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dahlov had been working with her sons Charlie and Bob, her agent Rachel Walls, and a number other people on a series of exhibits and programs to be held throughout the year, and Charlie and Bob added one more - a remembrance of her life. Here's an overview of the year.
Back in 1939, Dahlov had her first solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, known as the Creative Growth Exhibit, because it followed her development as an artist from the age of about three until she was twenty-one. This spring, for the first time in almost 80 years, many of those pieces were exhibited at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art. It was an spectacular show with a large variety of subjects in an amazing number of styles. Here are some of her watercolors from age 10-13; there are more pictures of the exhibit in an album on Charlie's Facebook page.
The next event was the opening of Dahlov Ipcar's Century, an exhibition of more than 100 works of art created over nearly 100 years, at Rachel Walls Fine Art in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. It's hard to post just one picture for that because there are so many nooks and crannies in the lovely old building at Fort Williams Park, so here's a picture of a few of us at the opening -
- and I'm not sure if all of these are currently on exhibit, but many of them are so this collage provides a little peek into what you'll find if you can get to the gallery - and you can also see a number of the other items on display on Rachel's website.
On August 26, many of Dahlov's family members and friends gathered to remember her life with pictures, stories, poetry and songs.
The following image clicks bigger, and hopefully provides a taste of the event. There were a few tears - but much more love and laughter.
The final event in this very busy year is a show of illustrations from Dahlov's many children's books at the Portland Public Library.
As part of the opening festivities for the show, the Library invited Charlie and a number of his music friends to perform some of Dahlov's favorite folks songs, a variation of the program many of them had done the year before with Dahlov in the audience. There were some new songs this time, including a version of Ken Hicks's song "All the Good People," led by Bob Zentz:
This is a song for all the good people
All the good people who touched up my life.
This is a song for all the good people
People I'm thankin' my stars for tonight.
(Ken Hicks ©1987)
Thank you, Dahlov. ♡