Dorothy Palėkas-Pere

Kai supratau, kad paliokas ir palėkas – tas pats, suradau tėvo pusseserę. Amerikoj.

Gerų Naujų Metų!

LITUANUS LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Volume 41, No.4 - Winter 1995 Editor of this issue: Robert A. Vitas, Lithuanian Research & Studies Center ISSN 0024-5089 Copyright © 1995 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.

THE ART OF DOROTHY PALĖKAS-PERE

Dorothy Palėkas Pere, born in Camden, New Jersey. Father, Juozas Palėkas, born February 3, 1894, in Pestiniai Village, District of Debeikiai, Lithuania. Mother, Helen Dobilis, born February 26, 1900, in Centralia, Pennsylvania, of Lithuanian parents, Jonas Dobilus and Magdalena Daltonaitė.

At age 16, attended Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts on a three-year scholarship.

At age 18, married and had two daughters, Michelle and Genevieve. After a divorce, she began focusing on mythology and creative interpretation in her painting.

During the next 20 years she sculpted coins for Project Appollo for the Franklin Mint, Media, Pennsylvania; produced numerous commissioned portraits; sailed as artist in Residence aboard the Britannis along the east and west coasts of South America and visited ancient sites; exhibited and lectured in Findhorn Community, Scotland; taught and lectured at many sites including the Omega Institute, New York, and the C.J. Jung Society, Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Palekas-Pere's goal is pursuing her deep commitment to the inner work of creating mythological images.

"Discovering that the same archetypal images appear in various form in all parts of the world and cultures, I wanted to find the common denominator emerging in my unconscious and paint it, using my knowledge of materials," she explains.

Using egg tempera on gesso panels, oil on canvas and mixed media, "I was amazed by the images that emerged," she says.

Having had the disciplines of anatomy, perspective, composition from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and years of hard work, Pere-Pere finds it exciting to translate the mental images.

Pere-Pere recently had begun a deep search into her Lithuanian heritage and realized that most of the images spoke of the underlying current ones senses in Lithuanian folk music, poetry and mythology. The delight of "going past nature and finding this beautiful world of harmony, strength and great beauty one has inherited is something one wishes to share with others," she says of her work.

Algimantas Kezys

SOPHIA, 1987, oil on canvas, 24"x18", collection of the artist.

Man with a Lion Mask, 1994, egg tempera on board, 14"x41"

King with a Golden Crown, 1987, oil on canvas, 38"x34", collection of the artist.

Eglė, 1981, oil on canvas, 24"x36", private collection.

Petronous, mixed media on paper, 30"x24", private collection.

Pegasus, watercolor, 39"x24", collection — Children's Hospital, Philadelphia, PA.

Icarus, 1975, oil on board, 40"x50", collection — American Academy of Arts and Science, Boston, Mass.

Song of the Animals, 1994, oil on gesso board, 16"x20".

Vaidilutės, 1994, oil on canvas, 28"x34", collection of the artist.

Aurora, 1979, watercolor, 30"x24", private collection.

Neptune, oil on canvas, 36"x30", private collection.