A Portrait of the Artist: Dale Eno Shore

Inspired by the launch of the Voyager Golden Record aboard NASA's Voyager space probe, in April of 2011, Firefly Lab, in collaboration with New York-based, HERE, devised an antenna to transmit music and video recordings to outer space. Curated by Zarah Cabañas, the first transmission of "Time Capsules to Space" occurred at a public event at HERE art space in Manhattan on the evening of April 15.

Its precedent, the Voyager Golden Record, was designed by world famous astronomer and futuristic thinker, Carl Sagan, and included images and sounds from the earth. A local painter and former resident artist at the Gaithersburg Arts Barn, Dale Eno Shore, made her own mark in the wake of these historic events that are still unfolding in space and time while scaling new frontiers. She and the other members of the Voyager team had their names engraved on a plate that is now traversing the interstellar medium.

Also present at the launch of Apollo 17 in 1972, Shore designed and executed pen and ink drawings of the three astronauts on board. Her drawings were included on the inside cover of a V.I.P. folder of handouts given to guest attendees.

Her career at NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) began when she took the Civil Service Exam in 1966 and started doing black and white illustrations and charts and graphs for the Goddard Space Flight Center.

"For the first four years, I was servicing scientists and administrators rather than the public relations wing of the agency, so I did not work in color much," said Shore who unflinchingly paints whole backgrounds in bright reds these days.

When she transferred to the agency's headquarters and began working in the consolidated graphics division, she got her feet wet in publication design and saw a little bit more color work. She designed
the NASA Monthly Newsletter, as well as pamphlets, brochures and exhibits.

It was while serving as graphics coordinator in the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology Research that she had a hand in forging the graphic identity of futuristic NASA programs presented to
congress and others.

"I loved my job at NASA. It was exciting to be on the cutting edge of space program. I had always loved astronomy and the space exploration agenda," said the artist whose personal orbit has always been the Capital Beltway and its surroundings.

After art school at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Dale Eno Shore spent a year in Baltimore working for a cartographer and doing portraits of athletes and guests at the Peabody Bookstore, which she describes as a modern-day speakeasy.

"I charged $1 per portrait and the house took a 25% commission," said Shore who was living the life of the proverbial starving artist a year after graduation.

NASA provided a lengthy and welcome stint from financial hardship and saw her through her marriage and her son's birth. NASA also provided the circumstances for a major turning point in the artist’s
spiritual life. It was there that a co-worker introduced her to the Baha’i Faith.

“Becoming a Baha’i changed my life forever. It influences everything I do, including my art,” said Shore who retired from NASA soon after her son was born. "When my son got older, I wanted to get back into things."

With an interest in graphic design, cultivated early on during a college internship at Vitro Corporation in Silver Spring and honed throughout her many years in NASA graphics departments, Shore tried to set up her own graphics business.

She found that she could not keep up with the rapidly changing technology and software updates going solo, so she decided to return to her original love and passion - fine art.

Following a number of teaching sprints through the Department of Adult Education of Montgomery County, the Department of Recreation, the Summit Art Group in Olde Towne Gaithersburg, and the Rockville Art Place now known as VisArts in Rockville Towne Center, Shore found her way to the Arts Barn. She was in the original group of applicants for a residency there, and once accepted, shared a studio with fellow artist Linda Liotta for two and a half years.

Although she is no longer an artist-in-residence, Shore still occasionally teaches art classes at the Arts Barn. She was last there in Fall of 2010 teaching colored pencils and spends the rest of her time teaching private classes in her home studio and painting with her Portrait Group.

"Even in art school I always loved painting and illustrating people," said Shore. "The first painting I fell head over heels in love with is Salvador Dali's 'Last Supper' at the National Gallery of Art. I admire and respect abstract art, and in school I painted Expressionism and Pop Art, but I have always loved Realism and painting styles related to Pop Art."

Shore numbers Michelangelo, Titian and David among her favorite artists.

"Art should be soul-stirring and uplifting," she said." I like the Surrealists, but not their dark side, but rather their mystical flair."

Among her influences are also James Rosenquist, who was a billboard artist before he became a painter, and Wayne Thiebaud, who painted gumball machines, pies and figures on white backgrounds. Shore especially admires the painting of his wife holding an ice cream cone.

"It has an unusual composition. It's more striking and dramatic than his other works," she said.

It is precisely this kind of painting that Shore wants to create through her own handiwork.

While at the Arts Barn, Shore organized the Arts Barn Guild, which was made up of resident artists Lauren Kingsland, Howard Cohen, Tony Glander, Linda Liotta and Dale Eno Shore.

"We had our own identity, unity and good spirit," said the artist who coordinated publicity for the group. Later, she applied her organizational skills to the creation of the Arts Barn Portrait Group,
which according to Shore, averaged six artists per session and met on Tuesdays at the Arts Barn.

"We painted from a live model and held six-week sessions for three hours per week for three and a half years," she said.

The group - which is currently showing at the Arts Barn through the end of July 2011 - relocated when studio space at the Arts Barn became unaffordable.

"We morphed into a new group, which I no longer have to coordinate, and we meet at Hood College in Frederick. We combined with a group of artists from Hagerstown and meet once a week on Thursdays in a beautiful, big studio with built-in equipment and great lighting," said Shore who still reserves nostalgia for the cozy and historical atmosphere of the Arts Barn. Sharing model fees and having access to one model for four weeks at a time, the group has settled comfortably into its new space and is only wanting of a new name.

Shore is currently working on a full-figure portrait of a young lady in a black dress and another that she plans on calling "End of the Day," featuring a man in a black chef's uniform leaning on a table with a frying pan, knife, and pots and pans stacked up around him.

"Oil paint is my favorite medium because I like the way it handles. Pastels, I like for their glowing color and color pencils have a meditative quality. Watercolor, on the other hand, has many happy accidents," said Shore who prefers to avoid the medium. "After I sketch on the canvas, I apply many thin layers of paint staring with the underpainting of the shadows and building up the colors from there.
There are no heavy brushstrokes on the canvas," said Shore who has recently begun using Walnut Oil, which according to the artist flows nicely and is not too thick.