Discover JOY'S GARDEN Healing heART 1964 ~ 2023

American Woman Artist Dorothy Fagan Heals Trauma with heART

As a Freshman art student at East Carolina University, Fagan superimposed a woman's body over her triptych mountain landscape with pastels ~ embodying earth. At 12 she'd received the 5-county regional First Place award in Morristown, N.J. for her collage "Eclipse."

At 25 her abstract woodland landscape "Two Sisters," got her elected the first Virginian to The Pastel Society of America. But as her pastel was acquired for the permanent collection of the City University of New York ~ she wanted to know 'who are the two sisters?'

The answer unfolded from a 1969 vision while studying in Spain where her class was housed in a kindergarten. Fagan eventually created two works titled "Jardines del Ninos" ~ the first a pastel in 1981 exhibited at the Virginia Museum, and a fiber art quilt 30 years later for the permanent collection of Boston Children's Hospital ~ both gently prodding the silent heart protected within her walled garden.

"'Your paintings are your search for the peace that's been missing from your life,' he said. Tears welled up as images flipped in my mind's eye. It was our first date, I felt exposed ~ as if he'd seen right though me to the essence of my soul.

"I married Jim. Healing colors came through my art uplifting us both. Following my brush strokes like breadcrumbs, we painted in France and Italy. The titles, symbols, and colors guided us step by step."

In France she fuses painting and drawing with willow charcoal and oil in a 2013 work titled "Attiendre" (Reaching), depicting thistle thriving in a 12th Century monastery garden (collection of Musee de la Grande Vigne, Dinan, France.) Her inspiration focuses on thistle, often regarded as a weed yet flourishing in the sacred, walled garden.

In 2020 her 10' mural titled "The Crossing" envisions a dual landscape, where we are crossing into a post-pandemic world ~ healing ourselves by expressing heart-felt emotions to create structures that support our hearts.

The Crossing, exhibited in Milan Fashion Week DressME 2020 answers her search for the second sister. Raising the creative heart within us all eclipses our vision of life's mission ~ transforming us forever. Titles of her newest paintings affirm the healing power of embodying earth: we are . . . Heading Home, Resting Place, Forevermore, Let Me Bloom I Am, Lift Me Fly Me!