Dorothy
FINE
ART
the artist
Artist Biography
Artist Statement
Dorothy Fine has had a varied career in the arts. A Pennsylvania native, she grew up in the woods painting with local clays and sandstone on stone outcroppings. She began her piano studies at the age of three and six years later began formal training at Allegheny College, PA. She attended Lebanon Valley College, PA, holds a Bachelor’s degree and a performance diploma cum laude from the Mannes College of Music, NYC, and a Master of Arts from the University of Denver. She performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout much of the United States and has taught piano and chamber music at Harvard and several regional conservatories of music.
She studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the DuCret School of Art in Plainfield, NJ, and the Art Students League in New York City. She was a founding member of the original Luna Stage in Montclair, NJ where she served as the co-artistic and producing director.
Ms. Fine currntly serves on the Borough of Flemington Common Council and is active in local environmental, educational, and arts related activities-all topics about which she is passionate. She teaches piano to students of all ages and levels, and serves as pianist of her church. She is also the spokesperson for Somi Fine Art Gallery, a co op gallery in the Stangl Factory in Flemington NJ, where her artwork can be seen.
Community is not only important but serves as a good balance to the many and necessary hours spent alone in the creative arts.
Living in a dual world of art and music, the distinction between the two is often blurred. I think in both worlds of sound and image, often simultaneously. I've always been intrigued by painting the non visual, conveying images with sound, bringing the past to the forefront. Time interests me, especially in the context of a painting or sculpture changing as it is perceived.
In the Bach Goldberg Variations, the opening Aria that returns sixty minutes and thirty variations later, note for note, is still a totally different experience for both listener and performer. Whereas in the beginning, the aria is heard for the first time as a work to be explored and varied, it concludes with the knowledge of the exploration of itself, and is itself, transformed.
Experiencing a work of art brings us to a new place and leaves us in yet another. That interim, however long, has become part of our experience. And while it may stir in us new thoughts or feelings or awarenesses, it just as often deepens what we already know.