Monte Dolack
Encyclopedia
Monte A. Dolack is an American graphic artist who lives in Missoula, Montana
, in the United States. Frommer's
called him "one of the best-known artists in Montana." He works primarily in watercolor, acrylic paint
, poster
art, and lithographs. Dolack's work often features whimsical animals in both a natural and artificial setting (such as a suburban living room), and has a worldwide following. Dolack is considered a key figure in the visual arts of the American West.
Widely known in his home state of Montana, Dolack has had his work exhibited worldwide. Some of his work is highly collectible.
in 1968. In his senior year, Dolack was chosen to design the cover of the GFHS yearbook
, The Roundup. His design was a then-fashionable contemporary art
work (similar to a Jackson Pollock
image) which a teacher in 2006 later described as "flat-out ugly". He attended Montana State University in Bozeman
from 1969 to 1970 and the University of Montana in Missoula from 1970 to 1974, graduating with a bachelor's degree
from the latter institution. While an undergraduate (in the days before Microsoft PowerPoint
), Dolack often drew charts and graphs for the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research, which turned his work into photographic slides. Dolack married Linda LaFond in 1970, but they divorced in 1972.
After graduation, Dolack was employed by the Anaconda Copper Company and was a member of a rock band.
He is generally considered to have begun his professional artistic career in 1974. Dolack gained local notice for designing posters for the Crystal Theater, an art film
theater in Missoula. By 1997, original Crystal Theater posters were collectors' items. Dolack also created posters which he sold as artwork. Among his most important early works is "Yahoo," which depicts a cowgirl on a horse and an anti-nuclear power symbol at the bottom. Dolack created the poster to commemorate the day the Missoula City Council voted to ban nuclear facilities within the city limits. Beginning in 1978, Dolack had a studio located at 132 W. Front Street in Missoula. A 48-page color collection of his poster art, Catalog of Posters & Prints: Crystal Theatre, was published in 1982.
Dolack married artist Mary Beth Percival on May 11, 1984. The same year, he began a series of works known as the "Invader series." The works feature animals "invading" human habitat, such as ducks swimming in a bathtub or a bear lying on the couch in a den
in a house. The following year, Dolack—who was already "a nationally known poster artist"—produced the cover of the book, Wings to the Orient: Pan American Clipper Planes, 1935–1945: A Pictorial History. Dolack's father, Michael, died the same year.
In 1989, Dolack's painting "Fast Forward" was featured in the show "Looking Forward" that exhibited emerging important artists, sponsored by the American Institute of Graphic Artists in Los Angeles. In 1990, Dolack donated a watercolor ("Restoring the Wolf to Yellowstone") depicting wolves looking over a plain of geysers and hot mud springs to the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife
, with sales of the poster going to a fund to compensate local ranchers for the loss of livestock incurred due to the reintroduction of grey wolves into Yellowstone National Park
. Although the fund also received donations from other foundations and proceeds from a benefit concert by rock artist James Taylor
, the majority of the fund's proceeds came from sales of Dolack's art. The National Park Service
in April 1990 banned the sale of the posters in Yellowstone and Glacier National Park
.
By 1993, his work had been shown in "hundreds of galleries, including some in Japan, Germany and France". That same year, he moved to a new, larger gallery at 139 W. Front Street. In 1998, Dolack donated his popular 1986 watercolor, "Blackfoot River," to the Blackfoot Legacy foundation for use as a fundraiser to oppose construction of a gold mine near Lincoln, Montana
. The following year, the Idaho Rivers United foundation commissioned Dolack to create a new work (later titled "Resurrection") depicting a breached dam and the reintroduction of salmon
and steelhead trout
to the Snake River
. The California clothing company Patagonia
sold copies of the print through its stores and catalogs.
The next year, Dolack's "Heron Blues" (a poster primarily in blue hues depicting a blue heron
flying down a Montana city street at night) was included in the poetic collection Vagrant Grace. In 2000, Dolack painted a 2 by acrylic
work, "A History Lesson," which depicted a full-grown American bison
standing in a schoolroom which is decorated with pictures, symbols, blackboard writing, and other images important to Montana history. The work hung in the C.M. Russell Museum
, one of the nation's premier Western art museums, before being donated to Great Falls High School. That same year, his painting "Streamside," was featured on the cover of the academic work The Evolutionary Imagination in Late-Victorian Novels: An Entangled Bank'.' The same year, Farcountry Press published a retrospective book, Monte Dolack, The Works, featuring his work.
In December 2001, Dolack created a new work, the 23 by "Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery at the White Cliffs of the Missouri," and donated it to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center near Black Eagle Dam
on the Great Falls of the Missouri River. Posters of the work were used to raise money for the center, but it was sold for an undisclosed sum to First Interstate BancSystem
three months later. Dolack's mother, Mary, died in 2002.
In 2003, the University of Montana's Montana World Trade Center arranged for several exhibits of Dolack's work in Ireland as part of a trade mission
. The showings were so popular and gained such notice in the worldwide art community that showing of Dolack's work in New Zealand were also arranged in 2004.
Dolack was given a second chance to design his high school's yearbook in 2006. For the yearbook's 100th edition, Dolack contributed his recently completed "Montana Power"—which depicts a bison in a field of dry grass, with Square Butte
in the background. That same year, Dolack's "Mirage" (a painting of rainbow trout leaping through a field of wheat as if it were water) appeared on the cover of the book Cowboy Trout: Western Fly Fishing As If It Matters. Two years later, Dolack's 2000 work, "A History Lesson" (now retitled "Montana History Lesson") was used on the front cover of the history book Montana: Stories of the Land, published by the Montana Historical Society.
On April 6, 2009, Dolack suffered a serious heart attack. Taken to St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center
, Dolack underwent open-heart surgery, and a stent
implanted in an artery to improve blood supply to his heart. The next year, Dolack's "Upper Missouri River Suite," which consists of three hand-drawn lithographs, was added to the art collection hanging at the new Missouri River Federal Courthouse in Great Falls.
In 2011, in celebration of the International Year of Forests
, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
planted 70 living trees in the Palais des Nations building in Geneva
, Switzerland. In front of the temporary forest, the two organizations exhibited a large number of Dolack works which featured forests. The exhibition, "The Art of Trees—A Forest Gallery", also includes displays of innovative wood products and artwork made of wood.
, a Finnish
painter in the Neo-romantic
style.
Dolack says he has a large library of artistic reference works which he uses to improve his technique and to gain inspiration. he also has a large number of anatomical, wildlife, landscape, and other reference works which he relies on to bring realism and strong detail to his work. But print works are not the only source of inspiration for him. He once gained an idea for a woodpecker carrying a burning branch ("Stealing Fire") by seeing a rebroadcast of The Power of Myth
, a television documentary featuring conversations between mythologist Joseph Campbell
and journalist Bill Moyers
.
Dolack says his working style is to get an idea which he immediately sketches out on a small piece of paper. He then pins these sketches to a "Wall of Ideas" in his studio, and returns to them later Beginning work on a piece, he conducts research in his library to help make the work more realistic and detailed. His creative technique, however, involves what Dolack calls "working from the inside." As he told the Missoula Independent
in 2002: "...I also want to bring in things that are from the inside and not the outside, and find the right place to mix the two of them together. Part of the road I'm on with these pictures is to graduate slowly toward being able to paint more from the inside."
Most of Dolack's post-Crystal Theater work features whimsical animals. While some of his art depicts straightforward scenes from nature, much of it is whimsical in nature. In commemorating a forest fire, one work depicts elk with their antlers on fire. To bring out the way in which fisherman "romance" fish from the water, another work depicts a man dancing with a gigantic rainbow trout. Whimsy is an important characteristic of Dolack's work. Filmmaker Annick Smith
has described Dolack's work as "a fairytale version of [an] actual place. His whimsical eye informs both our urban and rural stories, adding color, form and sharp lines to the obscure and chaotic vistas of real life. He's a myth-maker, which is why he is Montana's most popular contemporary artist." Juxtaposition and paradox (a blue heron in an urban setting, fish leaping through a field of wheat) are a one of the most common ways in which Dolack creates whimsy in his work. Smith, however, notes that Dolack's work, while representational, incorporates elements of psychedelic art
, modern art
, and postmodern art
. His work also tends to be narrative, in that each image tells a story. Dolack has said his commissioned work tends to be more obvious in this regard, while his personal artwork is meant to be subtle—enjoyable if a viewer understands its philosophical underpinnings, and enjoyable if the viewer does not. As Dolack said of a series of works in 2002: "I didn't want these pictures to be didactic and finger-wagging kinds of pictures. You can get into that making posters, because you're really trying to tell people things, explain things or get a message across. With these pictures, I really wanted there to be a more poetic presence to them, where everyone could find their own message in the picture and have a different interpretation. So I didn't want to get too into explaining each picture."
Environmentalism is another key theme in Dolack's work. Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, former director of the Montana Committee for the Humanities, says that Dolack's environmental message in the mid 1980s was subtle. But by the time of his 2000 work "Montana History Lesson," she notes, Dolack had opted for "overt" statements.
The whimsical nature of Dolack's work masks exceptional technique as an artist, however. Maggie Mudd, executive director of the University of Montana's Montana Museum of Art and Culture, points out that Dolack uses "painstaking painting techniques" which produce highly polished visual surfaces. Dolack's work also exhibits "wildly inventive color".
The Invader Series (begun in 1984) contains some of his best known works.
The Monte Dolack Scholarship Fund at Great Falls High School is named for him.
The westslope cutthroat trout from Dolack's 1986 "Blackfoot River" is featured on a Trout Unlimited specialty license plate issued by the state of Montana.
since 1995.
Dolack is a founding member of the Japan Club.
A Democrat
, Dolack is an avid fly fisherman
, hiker
, and bird watcher.
Missoula, Montana
Missoula is a city located in western Montana and is the county seat of Missoula County. The 2010 Census put the population of Missoula at 66,788 and the population of Missoula County at 109,299. Missoula is the principal city of the Missoula Metropolitan Area...
, in the United States. Frommer's
Frommer's
Frommer's is a travel guidebook series and one of the bestselling travel guides in America. The series began in 1957 with the publication of Arthur Frommer's book, Europe on $5 a Day. Frommer's has expanded to include over 350 guidebooks across 14 series, as well as other media including the award...
called him "one of the best-known artists in Montana." He works primarily in watercolor, acrylic paint
Acrylic paint
Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry...
, poster
Poster
A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be...
art, and lithographs. Dolack's work often features whimsical animals in both a natural and artificial setting (such as a suburban living room), and has a worldwide following. Dolack is considered a key figure in the visual arts of the American West.
Widely known in his home state of Montana, Dolack has had his work exhibited worldwide. Some of his work is highly collectible.
Life and career
Dolack was born in May 1950 to Michael George and Mary (Miller) D. Dolack. His father had two sons from a previous marriage (Bob and Bill), while Mary gave birth to Monte and his sister, Marlene. He graduated from Great Falls High SchoolGreat Falls High School
Great Falls High School is a public high school for grades 9 through 12 located in Great Falls, Montana. Established in 1890, it was the city's first high school. The school's original building, constructed in 1896, is now on the National Register of Historic Places. GFHS began construction on its...
in 1968. In his senior year, Dolack was chosen to design the cover of the GFHS yearbook
Yearbook
A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a book to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school or a book published annually. Virtually all American, Australian and Canadian high schools, most colleges and many elementary and middle schools publish yearbooks...
, The Roundup. His design was a then-fashionable contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
work (similar to a Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
image) which a teacher in 2006 later described as "flat-out ugly". He attended Montana State University in Bozeman
Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The 2010 census put Bozeman's population at 37,280 making it the fourth largest city in the state. It is the principal city of the Bozeman micropolitan area, which consists...
from 1969 to 1970 and the University of Montana in Missoula from 1970 to 1974, graduating with a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
from the latter institution. While an undergraduate (in the days before Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a non-free commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system...
), Dolack often drew charts and graphs for the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research, which turned his work into photographic slides. Dolack married Linda LaFond in 1970, but they divorced in 1972.
After graduation, Dolack was employed by the Anaconda Copper Company and was a member of a rock band.
He is generally considered to have begun his professional artistic career in 1974. Dolack gained local notice for designing posters for the Crystal Theater, an art film
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
theater in Missoula. By 1997, original Crystal Theater posters were collectors' items. Dolack also created posters which he sold as artwork. Among his most important early works is "Yahoo," which depicts a cowgirl on a horse and an anti-nuclear power symbol at the bottom. Dolack created the poster to commemorate the day the Missoula City Council voted to ban nuclear facilities within the city limits. Beginning in 1978, Dolack had a studio located at 132 W. Front Street in Missoula. A 48-page color collection of his poster art, Catalog of Posters & Prints: Crystal Theatre, was published in 1982.
Dolack married artist Mary Beth Percival on May 11, 1984. The same year, he began a series of works known as the "Invader series." The works feature animals "invading" human habitat, such as ducks swimming in a bathtub or a bear lying on the couch in a den
Den (room)
A den is a comfortable, usually secluded room in a house. In the United States, the type of rooms described by the term den varies considerably by region...
in a house. The following year, Dolack—who was already "a nationally known poster artist"—produced the cover of the book, Wings to the Orient: Pan American Clipper Planes, 1935–1945: A Pictorial History. Dolack's father, Michael, died the same year.
In 1989, Dolack's painting "Fast Forward" was featured in the show "Looking Forward" that exhibited emerging important artists, sponsored by the American Institute of Graphic Artists in Los Angeles. In 1990, Dolack donated a watercolor ("Restoring the Wolf to Yellowstone") depicting wolves looking over a plain of geysers and hot mud springs to the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife
Defenders of Wildlife
Defenders of Wildlife is a United States-based, 501 non-profit organization founded in 1947, "dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities." The organization is active in political interventions and lobbying aimed at protection of wildlife, and...
, with sales of the poster going to a fund to compensate local ranchers for the loss of livestock incurred due to the reintroduction of grey wolves into Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
. Although the fund also received donations from other foundations and proceeds from a benefit concert by rock artist James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, the majority of the fund's proceeds came from sales of Dolack's art. The National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
in April 1990 banned the sale of the posters in Yellowstone and Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park may refer to:*Glacier National Park in British Columbia, Canada*Glacier National Park in Montana, USA-See also:*Glacier Bay National Park, in Alaska, USA*Los Glaciares National Park, in Argentina...
.
By 1993, his work had been shown in "hundreds of galleries, including some in Japan, Germany and France". That same year, he moved to a new, larger gallery at 139 W. Front Street. In 1998, Dolack donated his popular 1986 watercolor, "Blackfoot River," to the Blackfoot Legacy foundation for use as a fundraiser to oppose construction of a gold mine near Lincoln, Montana
Lincoln, Montana
Lincoln is a census-designated place in Lewis and Clark County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,100 at the 2000 census. Its elevation is 4536 feet above sea level.Lincoln is part of the Helena Micropolitan Statistical Area....
. The following year, the Idaho Rivers United foundation commissioned Dolack to create a new work (later titled "Resurrection") depicting a breached dam and the reintroduction of salmon
Oncorhynchus
Oncorhynchus is a genus of fish in the family Salmonidae; it contains the Pacific salmons and Pacific trouts. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek onkos and rynchos , in reference to the hooked jaws of males in the mating season .-Range:Salmon and trout with ranges generally in waters...
and steelhead trout
Rainbow trout
The rainbow trout is a species of salmonid native to tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is a sea run rainbow trout usually returning to freshwater to spawn after 2 to 3 years at sea. In other words, rainbow trout and steelhead trout are the same species....
to the Snake River
Snake River
The Snake is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean...
. The California clothing company Patagonia
Patagonia (clothing)
Patagonia, Inc. is a Ventura, California-based clothing company, focusing mainly on outdoor clothing. The company is a member of several environmental movements. It was founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1972....
sold copies of the print through its stores and catalogs.
The next year, Dolack's "Heron Blues" (a poster primarily in blue hues depicting a blue heron
Blue heron
Blue heron can refer to:* Little Blue Heron, a small heron* Great Blue Heron, a large wading bird* Blue Heron Lake, Canada* Great Blue Heron Casino, Canada* Blue Heron Estate, Alberta* Blue Heron, Kentucky* Blue Heron Park Preserve, New York City...
flying down a Montana city street at night) was included in the poetic collection Vagrant Grace. In 2000, Dolack painted a 2 by acrylic
Acrylic
Acrylic may refer to:Chemicals and materials:* Chemical compounds that contain the acryl group derived from acrylic acid* Acrylic fiber, a synthetic polymer fiber that contains at least 85% acrylonitrile...
work, "A History Lesson," which depicted a full-grown American bison
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
standing in a schoolroom which is decorated with pictures, symbols, blackboard writing, and other images important to Montana history. The work hung in the C.M. Russell Museum
C. M. Russell Museum Complex
C.M. Russell Museum Complex is an art museum located in the city of Great Falls, Montana, in the United States. The museum's primary function is to display the artwork of Great Falls "cowboy artist" Charles Marion Russell, for whom the museum is named...
, one of the nation's premier Western art museums, before being donated to Great Falls High School. That same year, his painting "Streamside," was featured on the cover of the academic work The Evolutionary Imagination in Late-Victorian Novels: An Entangled Bank'.' The same year, Farcountry Press published a retrospective book, Monte Dolack, The Works, featuring his work.
In December 2001, Dolack created a new work, the 23 by "Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery at the White Cliffs of the Missouri," and donated it to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center near Black Eagle Dam
Black Eagle Dam
Black Eagle Dam is a hydroelectric gravity weir dam located on the Missouri River in the city of Great Falls, Montana. The first dam on the site, built and opened in 1890, was a timber-and-rock crib dam. This structure was the first hydroelectric dam built in Montana and the first built on the...
on the Great Falls of the Missouri River. Posters of the work were used to raise money for the center, but it was sold for an undisclosed sum to First Interstate BancSystem
First Interstate BancSystem
First Interstate BancSystem, Inc., a financial holding company, and its primary banking subsidiary First Interstate Bank are based in Billings, Montana, USA....
three months later. Dolack's mother, Mary, died in 2002.
In 2003, the University of Montana's Montana World Trade Center arranged for several exhibits of Dolack's work in Ireland as part of a trade mission
Trade mission
Trade mission is an international trip by government officials and businesspeople that is organized by agencies of national or provincial governments for purpose of exploring international business opportunities. Business people who attend trade missions are typically introduced both to important...
. The showings were so popular and gained such notice in the worldwide art community that showing of Dolack's work in New Zealand were also arranged in 2004.
Dolack was given a second chance to design his high school's yearbook in 2006. For the yearbook's 100th edition, Dolack contributed his recently completed "Montana Power"—which depicts a bison in a field of dry grass, with Square Butte
Adel Mountains Volcanic Field
The Adel Mountains Volcanic Field is an ancient volcanic field of heavily eroded 75 million year old igneous rocks about 40 miles long and 20 miles wide in west-central Montana about 30 miles southwest of the city of Great Falls...
in the background. That same year, Dolack's "Mirage" (a painting of rainbow trout leaping through a field of wheat as if it were water) appeared on the cover of the book Cowboy Trout: Western Fly Fishing As If It Matters. Two years later, Dolack's 2000 work, "A History Lesson" (now retitled "Montana History Lesson") was used on the front cover of the history book Montana: Stories of the Land, published by the Montana Historical Society.
On April 6, 2009, Dolack suffered a serious heart attack. Taken to St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center
St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center
St. Patrick Hospital, commonly known as St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center, is a healthcare facility in Missoula, Montana.-Overview:...
, Dolack underwent open-heart surgery, and a stent
Stent
In the technical vocabulary of medicine, a stent is an artificial 'tube' inserted into a natural passage/conduit in the body to prevent, or counteract, a disease-induced, localized flow constriction. The term may also refer to a tube used to temporarily hold such a natural conduit open to allow...
implanted in an artery to improve blood supply to his heart. The next year, Dolack's "Upper Missouri River Suite," which consists of three hand-drawn lithographs, was added to the art collection hanging at the new Missouri River Federal Courthouse in Great Falls.
In 2011, in celebration of the International Year of Forests
International Year of Forests
The year 2011 was declared the International Year of Forests by the United Nations to raise awareness and strengthen the sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests for the benefit of current and future generations....
, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe was established in 1947 to encourage economic cooperation among its member states. It is one of five regional commissions under the administrative direction of United Nations headquarters. It has 56 member states, and reports to the UN Economic and...
and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and...
planted 70 living trees in the Palais des Nations building in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Switzerland. In front of the temporary forest, the two organizations exhibited a large number of Dolack works which featured forests. The exhibition, "The Art of Trees—A Forest Gallery", also includes displays of innovative wood products and artwork made of wood.
Style
It is not clear which artists have influenced Dolack's work. When he was a teenager, he says, he drew heavily on the work of Jackson Pollock. In 2002, Dolack said he had recently become intrigued by the work of Akseli Gallen-KallelaAkseli Gallen-Kallela
Akseli Gallen-Kallela was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic . His work was considered very important for the Finnish national identity...
, a Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
painter in the Neo-romantic
Neo-romanticism
The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in music, painting and architecture. It has been used with reference to very late 19th century and early 20th century composers such as Gustav Mahler particularly by Carl Dahlhaus who uses it as synonymous with late Romanticism...
style.
Dolack says he has a large library of artistic reference works which he uses to improve his technique and to gain inspiration. he also has a large number of anatomical, wildlife, landscape, and other reference works which he relies on to bring realism and strong detail to his work. But print works are not the only source of inspiration for him. He once gained an idea for a woodpecker carrying a burning branch ("Stealing Fire") by seeing a rebroadcast of The Power of Myth
The Power of Myth
The companion book for the series, The Power of Myth, was released in 1988 at the same time the series aired on PBS...
, a television documentary featuring conversations between mythologist Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell
Joseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience...
and journalist Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
.
Dolack says his working style is to get an idea which he immediately sketches out on a small piece of paper. He then pins these sketches to a "Wall of Ideas" in his studio, and returns to them later Beginning work on a piece, he conducts research in his library to help make the work more realistic and detailed. His creative technique, however, involves what Dolack calls "working from the inside." As he told the Missoula Independent
Missoula Independent
Missoula Independent is a free weekly newspaper in Missoula, Montana, USA.The Missoula Independent is the largest weekly newspaper in Montana. It is published on every Thursday, and is delivered throughout Montana. As of a March 2007 audit, it had a circulation of 22,103 and is distributed every...
in 2002: "...I also want to bring in things that are from the inside and not the outside, and find the right place to mix the two of them together. Part of the road I'm on with these pictures is to graduate slowly toward being able to paint more from the inside."
Most of Dolack's post-Crystal Theater work features whimsical animals. While some of his art depicts straightforward scenes from nature, much of it is whimsical in nature. In commemorating a forest fire, one work depicts elk with their antlers on fire. To bring out the way in which fisherman "romance" fish from the water, another work depicts a man dancing with a gigantic rainbow trout. Whimsy is an important characteristic of Dolack's work. Filmmaker Annick Smith
Annick Smith
Annick Smith is a writer and filmmaker whose work often focuses on the natural world.The daughter of Hungarian émigrés, Smith was born in Paris and raised in Chicago, Illinois. In 1964, she moved to Montana, where she and her husband and sons eventually settled on a ranch in the Blackfoot River...
has described Dolack's work as "a fairytale version of [an] actual place. His whimsical eye informs both our urban and rural stories, adding color, form and sharp lines to the obscure and chaotic vistas of real life. He's a myth-maker, which is why he is Montana's most popular contemporary artist." Juxtaposition and paradox (a blue heron in an urban setting, fish leaping through a field of wheat) are a one of the most common ways in which Dolack creates whimsy in his work. Smith, however, notes that Dolack's work, while representational, incorporates elements of psychedelic art
Psychedelic art
Psychedelic art is any kind of visual artwork inspired by psychedelic experiences induced by drugs such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin. The word "psychedelic" "mind manifesting". By that definition all artistic efforts to depict the inner world of the psyche may be considered "psychedelic"...
, modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
, and postmodern art
Postmodern art
Postmodern art is a term used to describe an art movement which was thought to be in contradiction to some aspect of modernism, or to have emerged or developed in its aftermath...
. His work also tends to be narrative, in that each image tells a story. Dolack has said his commissioned work tends to be more obvious in this regard, while his personal artwork is meant to be subtle—enjoyable if a viewer understands its philosophical underpinnings, and enjoyable if the viewer does not. As Dolack said of a series of works in 2002: "I didn't want these pictures to be didactic and finger-wagging kinds of pictures. You can get into that making posters, because you're really trying to tell people things, explain things or get a message across. With these pictures, I really wanted there to be a more poetic presence to them, where everyone could find their own message in the picture and have a different interpretation. So I didn't want to get too into explaining each picture."
Environmentalism is another key theme in Dolack's work. Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, former director of the Montana Committee for the Humanities, says that Dolack's environmental message in the mid 1980s was subtle. But by the time of his 2000 work "Montana History Lesson," she notes, Dolack had opted for "overt" statements.
The whimsical nature of Dolack's work masks exceptional technique as an artist, however. Maggie Mudd, executive director of the University of Montana's Montana Museum of Art and Culture, points out that Dolack uses "painstaking painting techniques" which produce highly polished visual surfaces. Dolack's work also exhibits "wildly inventive color".
Notable works
Among his more notable works are:- "Yahoo" (1978) – One of his earliest works, the poster features a cowgirl on a horse, with an anti-nuclear symbol below.
- "Blackfoot River" (1986) – A 34 by poster featuring a westslope cutthroat troutWestslope cutthroat troutThe westslope cutthroat trout , also known as the blackspotted cutthroat, is a subspecies of the cutthroat trout and is a freshwater fish in the salmon family of order Salmoniformes. The cutthroat is the Montana state fish...
in the foreground, cliff face to the right, copse of trees to the left, and birds winging overhead. - "Going To The Sun" (1987) – A 19 by poster depicting a cyclist beginning to climb the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park.
- "Returning the Wolf to Yellowstone" (1990) – A 20 by poster depicting wolves looking over a plain of geysers and hot mud springs in Yellowstone National park.
- "Ascension" (1992) – A bull troutBull troutThe bull trout, Salvelinus confluentus, is a char of the family Salmonidae native to northwestern North America. Historically, S. confluentus has been known as the "Dolly Varden" , but was re-classified as a separate species in 1980. Bull trout are listed as a threatened species under the U.S....
attempts to climb a waterfalls. - "Big Medicine" (1997) – A 25.75 by gicleeGicléeGiclée , is a neologism coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne for fine art digital prints made on ink-jet printers. The name originally applied to fine art prints created on IRIS printers in a process invented in the late 1980s but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is...
poster with hand coloring, the image depicts the famous albino bison Big Medicine, who was born in Montana in 1933. - "Montana History Lesson" (also known as "A History Lesson") (2000) – A 2 by acrylicAcrylicAcrylic may refer to:Chemicals and materials:* Chemical compounds that contain the acryl group derived from acrylic acid* Acrylic fiber, a synthetic polymer fiber that contains at least 85% acrylonitrile...
work depicting a full-grown bison standing in a schoolroom decorated with pictures, blackboard writing, and other images important to Montana history.
The Invader Series (begun in 1984) contains some of his best known works.
- "Suburban Refuge" (1984) – A 22 by poster depicting ducks and other birds having taken over a bathroom (swimming in the tub, standing on the toilet, shredding the bathroom tissue).
- "Kitchen Preserve" (1985) – A 22 by poster depicting birds having taken over a kitchen.
- "Refridgeraiders" (1986) – A 30 by poster depicting penguins of different species raiding a home's refrigerator for food and ice.
- "After Hours" (1987) – A 22 by poster depicting fish swimming into a home's living room through an open window.
- "Tie One On" (1989) – A 24 by poster depicting birds of different species having opened a man's dresser in a home, and strewn his ties about.
- "Big Fish, Small Pond" (1991) – A 28.5 by poster depicting fish leaping in a bathtub, while ducks stand nearby on the floor and tub rim.
- "Leave it to Beavers" (1992) – A 24.5 by pastel painting of five beavers dismantling a living room in a log cabin.
- "Home on the Reef" (1994) – A 22 by poster depicting tropical fish swimming about in the air in a suburban home's living room.
- "A Beauty" (1994) – A 14 by half-size limited edition print depicting a large fish lying on a couch. Overhead, various paintings depict beautiful women lounging on couches and sofas as well
- "Bear's Den" (1995) – A 30 by poster of a mother bear lying on a couch in a fisherman's cabin (having eaten the fisherman), while her two cubs explore the cabin.
- "Cabin Fever" (1997) – A 21 by poster depicting fish swimming into a fisherman's cabin through an open window.
- "Harvest Time" (2000) – A 24 by poster depicting pheasants, quail, ducks, and other birds feasting on a basket of bread left in an open window.
Awards and honors
Dolack's work won "Best of Show" from the Los Angeles Society of Illustrators in 1991. The Missoulian in 1999 named Dolack "100 Montanans of the 20th Century." In 2003, Trout Unlimited bestowed its Communications for Coldwater Conservation Award—an annual honor given to a reporter, writer, or artist whose work has made significant gains in educating the public about conservation and the habitat of coldwater fish—on Dolack.The Monte Dolack Scholarship Fund at Great Falls High School is named for him.
The westslope cutthroat trout from Dolack's 1986 "Blackfoot River" is featured on a Trout Unlimited specialty license plate issued by the state of Montana.
Other roles
Dolack has served on the board of directors of the Montana Arts Council and the University of Montana Fine Art Advisory Board, and was a delegate from Montana on the Japan Economic Trade Organization in 1995. He also sat on the advisory board of the Big Hole River Foundation in 1999, and has been a member of the board of directors of the Montana chapter of Trout UnlimitedTrout Unlimited
Trout Unlimited is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of freshwater streams, rivers, and associated upland habitats for trout, salmon, other aquatic species, and people. Often contracted as "TU," the organization began in 1959 in Michigan...
since 1995.
Dolack is a founding member of the Japan Club.
A Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, Dolack is an avid fly fisherman
Fly fishing
Fly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting...
, hiker
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
, and bird watcher.