Each wall tells a different story. One, a collage of simple sketched human gestures, captured in only seconds. Another, of Sylvia the mannequin, preparing for her close-up on a throne of silks and flowers. And more, so many more, of the individual expressions of artists from all over.
If walls could talk, they would tell of a room in which people of all ages and people from all places gather to express their creativity.
They would tell the story of Edna Dapo.
A resident artist here in Phoenix, Dapo teaches weekly classes at Phoenix Center for the Arts where she instructs numerous students on the art of drawing and painting.
From oils to acrylics, Dapo prepares her students with the fundamentals needed to produce skillful and soulful pieces of art.
Recently, Dapo was nominated for the Phoenix Center for the Arts’ Mayor’s Arts Award, where she became a finalist in the Visual Artists category. Though she did not win, Dapo was compared with some of Phoenix’s most prominent artists. Additionally, she is usually the one tasked with painting the prizes given to the winners of the competition.
The Mayor’s Arts Awards are run by Phoenix Center for the Arts, so the department heads at the Center often take part in creating the winners’ prizes for their artwork. In Dapo’s case, this means creating paintings for the winners to take home. Staff at the center do not usually participate in the awards.
Joseph Benesh, Director at Phoenix Center for the Arts, said that this is what made Dapo’s nomination so special.
“Nominations are open – anybody can nominate anybody,” said Benesh. “Public nominations … could be from a fellow artist or a public supporter.”
Benesh said he is glad the center’s instructors are getting recognized by the public.
“If it were up to me, I would nominate them every year,” he said.
As far as her work as an instructor goes, Benesh said Dapo has “had a really deep impact on the center and on the students.”
“Department Heads like Edna create such a welcoming and generous culture,” he said.
It is difficult to be talented at both being an artist and being an instructor, according to Benesh. But he said Dapo does it well.
One of Dapo’s students, Phoenix resident Sharla Strong, agreed.
“I am just such a fan of Edna. She is so interesting,” Strong said. “She’s always hearing about some crazy thing going on in the art scene and will tell us about it. It’s so much fun!”
Strong said that one of her favorite parts of Dapo’s classes is the individuality and independence that each student gets to pursue in his or her art.
And in terms of balancing teaching and artistry, she said that Dapo’s work as a skilled artist helps her connect with her students.
“I feel like her art, for me, is very relevant right now and for history,” she said. “And I think that everyone should take her class.”
Dapo has been practicing art from an early age. While she lived in Dubrovnik, Croatia, she attended a high school that emphasized the arts and classical training.
She said living in ex-Yugoslavia during the Wars made her more interested in portraying human emotion in her artwork.
“I think I’m more empathetic to people. I’m interested in people,” Dapo said. “I like portraits, too. You can learn a lot from a face.”
The symbols of humanity featured in her artwork also allow Dapo to connect with her audience. Some of her most notable collections are Aftermath, Ballet and Rubble and Muse and Cygnus.
Dapo’s Ballet and Rubble series, which she said houses some of her deepest paintings, reflects some of her favorite themes in art: the dichotomy of construction and destruction.
“That is like, to me, what humans represent. We are so destructive … but then again, we have the ability to achieve the highest creation and innovation,” Dapo said. “I was using a dancer as an example of a contrast of destruction, because a dancer creates with [her] own body. [A dancer’s] body is art.”
While Dapo spends most of her time exposing and exhibiting her artwork, she also helps other artists as well.
Fellow artist, Scottsdale-based Steven DeWitt Perrin, said that though he has not met Dapo in person, his interactions with her through Facebook have taught him that “she’s a really good and patient teacher.”
“All her time is busy painting and teaching, and I admire her very much for that,” he said.
For the past 11 years, she has been the Department Head of Painting and Drawing at the Phoenix Center for the arts and a professor at Mesa Community College for the last nine.
She said that what is neat about her role as a teacher is that “not only does it impact all ages, it impacts all races, too.” Dapo said that her art classes are always diverse and allow her to meet people from all over the world.
“I’ve really met people from almost every continent, just through these classes,” said Dapo.
One of the reasons Dapo loves teaching is because it allows her to not only meet fellow artists but also to work on her own art in the meantime. Art professors are typically expected to be producing their own art along with helping their students, which means she is surrounded by art all day.
“Art encompasses everything,” she said. “Everything has been touched by an artist or a designer.”
In addition to Dapo’s career as a professor, she has also worked as a curator for art galleries. At both Phoenix Center for the Arts and The Nash, a downtown Phoenix jazz venue and education center, Dapo has had experience arranging shows and setting up artwork for different artists.
Lorene Ely, Secretary to the Board of Directors at The Nash, said Dapo is “a fabulous painter” and “was the most ingenious type of person” they could have had to start up the art gallery at their establishment.
“Edna and I worked together with the very first art that was ever put into The Nash,” says Ely. “She did fabulous work.”
Ely says that Dapo’s work as a gallery manager helped to establish the jazz club’s prominent position in the Roosevelt Arts District, due to the bigger following that came with the addition of artwork to the musical establishment.
Though she is currently focusing more on teaching, Dapo still puts her artwork out from time to time. She has a 24/7 gallery in her art studio and is always featuring her work online, whether that be through her website, ednadapo.com, or her Facebook page.
As of right now, Dapo has received acceptance to be featured in the Burton Barr Central Library’s @Central Gallery show in 2019.
Contact the reporter at alfuente@asu.edu.
