MERGE: Metro State Alumni Exhibition featured artist Dawn McFadden

Dawn S. McFadden (’01, art) is this Tuesday’s featured MERGE artist. McFadden worked full time as a Denver Post newspaper artist while earning her degree at Metro State. McFadden, who also has an MFA from Bowling Green State University, instructs foundation design, painting and art appreciation on the Auraria Campus. She is also a partner in the McFaddenWright-Studio/Gallery, Her current works include painting and drawing, installation/performance art, bisque-fried clay, bronze and fabric sculpture.

Metro State: How would you characterize your art?
Dawn McFadden: Multi-disciplined investigations into patterns and storytelling

MS: Tell me about your latest work and why you are inspired by it?
DM: I've returned to a 2-dimensional figurative investigation that I started prior to my master's studies, this work continues to reoccur in my research - looking for connections between the self and the other, inexplicable energies

MS: In what ways did your Metro State professors influence your work?
DM: As a 9-year undergraduate student, the shape of my life was carved into a motif of life-long learning

MS: How has your work evolved since you graduated?
DM: Although I graduated with a painting emphasis, my graduate studies in Italy and Ohio drew me into sculpture and eventually toward installation and performance Currently, my interests focus on collaborative works and curating shows for a small gallery that my partner and I run in Northwest Denver (Tennyson Street Arts District) McFaddenWright – StudioGallery. mcfaddenwright.com

MS: Tell me why you submitted the pieces that you did for MERGE.
DM: A drawing/painting seemed logical to include in a big group show it would have been grand to have executed an installation for the event...

MS: How do you feel about this opportunity to present your work for Metro State’s new CVA facility?
DM: Proud

MS: Is there anything I’m not asking you that you want to share with me?
DM: The opportunities and inspiration(s) that the CVA has afforded me both as a student and now as an instructor have been invaluable - Jennifer is a kid compared to me but she is a mentor through her personal example and a hero in the world of academia.