Raising Maine

At 91, celebrated artist Dahlov Ipcar wakes each day excited as always to paint the world around her.

By PATRICIA McCARTHY, Raising Maine Contributor

When asked about her health at age 91, legendary Maine artist Dahlov Ipcar playfully ticks off that she has "two new hips, two new eyes (cataract surgeries), two new hands (carpal tunnel surgeries) and two new shoulders." And, because of back problems that can't be fixed, she relies on a walker to get around.

But her mind, wit and humor are another story altogether. They're entirely intact. As is her artistic talent and ability.

Ipcar still paints daily, and her complex oil paintings are as lively, wildly imaginative and fanciful as ever. The creatures in her fantastic worlds are essentially realistic, but stylized with a mix of sharp edges and fluid lines, bold colors and patterns. A couple of recent subjects: a hyena about to attack a wildebeest, wild dogs on the run.

Not what most of society would expect to be emerging from the mind and hands of a 91-year-old woman. But for Ipcar, daily painting of intriguing subjects "keeps her body and soul together."

"It still makes me happy," she says from the color- and light-filled studio of her Georgetown farmhouse. "I can't walk in the woods or go out in the fields any longer, but I can paint. And I haven't run out of ideas yet!"

The walls of her studio are filled with her vibrant images of jungle scenes, with animal combat groups and wild animals at play. Her workspace also includes favorite pieces from her mother and father, noted artists Marguerite and William Zorach, who had great influence on Ipcar's artistic expression.

"My son Charlie (now 66) liked to say that I was their great experiment," she says, grinning and noting that she received no formal art education beyond high school art classes. "They wanted to see what would happen on my own."

What happened was that she soaked up art in a myriad of forms, growing up in New York City. Ipcar has written that art is as critical to a child's development as love, and she says she appreciates what she was surrounded by as a child. Inspiration came from her Cubism-oriented parents and their contemporaries, from galleries and exhibits (she was especially taken with the works of Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and Jose Orozco), and from many a visit to her city's art museums and zoos.

Animals captivated Ipcar's imagination from an early age and continue to be what she most loves to paint. She currently is working on a barnyard scene and recently finished what she calls a "poultry medley" with ducks, geese, pigeons and the like. Other recent works included one titled "Birds and Butterflies" and another, "Kudu (an African antelope) and Wild Dogs."

"I don't really know why exactly, it's funny what holds your interest. But I loved animals when I was a child, and that affected me throughout my life. From a very early age, I wanted to live on a farm. When I was 9, I was catching butterflies in Maine in the summers, and it grew from there."

Ipcar did wind up trading city life for a farming life in Maine. She met her future husband, Adolph, at age 14, was proposed to at 16, and "made him wait" until she was 18 to marry, in 1936. They moved to Georgetown shortly after – "and I turned him into a farmer."

Together, they started a dairy farm in the heart of the Great Depression. Their life was challenging, with no electricity and no indoor plumbing for years. They cut their own firewood and hay, hunted (including many a squirrel during World War II) and grew their own food, initially milked cows by hand and farmed for many years with just one horse as help. Ipcar recalls that they were very happy living a frugal, "romantic" life that many would consider difficult. Enough so that they continued farming for three decades.

Along the way, Adolph (who died in 2003) and Dahlov had two sons (Robert, 69, a cinematographer in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Charlie, who lives in Richmond, renovating houses and "fund-raising for good causes"). Dahlov never stopped painting and drew largely on her surroundings for inspiration. She entered and won a mural competition that led to commissions, and had a few solo shows of her work in New York.

Broader fame and financial security came when Ipcar started writing children's books. She was asked to illustrate a book by Margaret Wise Brown, "The Little Fisherman," which was first published in 1945. That led to illustrating another book, then to branching out to create books entirely herself, including some "dark and strange" stories for teens, too.

Her first children's books were "Animal Hide and Seek" and then "One Horse Farm," chronicling her farm life and published by Doubleday in 1950. In all, Ipcar produced 30 children's books, three of which have been redesigned and reissued in the last year by Islandport Press, an independent Maine publisher. These are: "The Little Fisherman," "My Wonderful Christmas Tree" and "The Cat At Night."A fourth, "Hard Scrabble Harvest," will be reissued in September.

"Her books and art are wonderful," says publisher Dean Lunt. "Some of these books had been out of print for decades, and we feel privileged to bring them back for a new generation to enjoy."

Ipcar says she is thrilled to have her books revamped and re-released, but her writing days are over.

"I seem to have had a limited supply of stories, but luckily, there seems to be no such limit with art. I don't see any lack of inspiration there, and will paint as long as my eyes hold up and my frame holds up." Ipcar says she occasionally dips into "a large box of little clippings and sketches" for ideas.

"I also subscribe to a wildlife magazine, which has some marvelous subjects I haven't tackled yet, and even better, I like to get ideas from nature programs on TV" and then paint them from memory – deliberately training her visual memory is something she's worked hard at.
Ipcar says she is proud of what she's accomplished so far with her art – and laughs that "the experiment" worked out pretty well.

"My parents – and my husband and sons – were always very encouraging. I think that my parents would be proud that I stuck to my guns and didn't feel I needed to follow fashion and trends. And that I developed my own independent style.

"It may seem egotistical, I don't know, but I feel I'll have left something of value for the world to enjoy for as long as it holds up."

IPCAR ONLINE
Several of Dahlov Ipcar's children's books have been reissued in the past year by Maine publisher Islandport Press.

FOR MORE on Ipcar check out:
Islandport Press Events
The World of Dahlov Ipcar