Meet Your Neighbor - Dale Strong
By Heather Stanton
Published: November 22nd, 2008, Foothills News, Page 5

	Dale Strong

   T U C S O N D a l e Strong. If you were introduced to him at a party, you might make a few assumptions about his life based on a couple of facts.
   Fact: He worked for Zales Jewelers for 56 years. Fact: He's 77 years old. Fact: He's easy going , affable, and charming. Natural Assumption: So he must be a retiree living out his years in this paradise we call the Foothills.
   There's more to Strong than the facts would suggest . This highly talented and motivated man works harder now than he did years ago. Strong is an artist. He paints beautiful landscape pictures from real life. So when he painted something called, "Minnie's Cabin," rest assured, there's a Minnie out there with a cabin that looks just like his picture.
   "I paint realistic landscapes ," says Strong who prefers to work from the actual scenery instead of working from a photograph . "God did a good enough job and I just try to capture it."
   Strong is a man of many talents. He started his career as an opera singer, winning a scholarship to study at Julliard. But by age 19, he was already married with two boys. He declined the opportunity, choosing family over career, and never sang a note again. He attended six different colleges, flrst studying photography , and then switching to art. It was during his time at the Institute of Fine Art in Paris where he picked up the idea for his signature technique.
   Inspired by the skill of Vincent van Gogh, Dale returned to the States in 1970 and tried to paint with a palette knife.
   Strong said, "I'm a realist and I want you to feel like you are walking into my paintings."
   Unfortunately, with his large hands and the small handle of the knife, he had little success.
   Then one day he was enjoying a glass of iced tea and noticed the long handle of the iced tea spoon. Inspiration struck. Taking two iced tea spoons down to the local railroad track, he taped them to the track, and waited for the train to come. Strong has been painting with two flattened iced tea spoons ever since. One spoon he ground the side to make more angular, he uses it for the flne lines and details in his paintings.
   The other flattened spoon with its naturally round edges, he uses for blending color directly on the canvas. These spoons allow him to use an impasto technique (wet on wet), which is when an artist layers one layer of paint on top of another before the paint dries. This gives the painting more color vibrancy, depth, and texture.
   His art has been winning awards ever since. Strong has received flve international awards for his works. His paintings are in the private collections of Frank Sinatra, Johnny Carson, Luciano Pavarotti, Chita Rivera, President Clinton, and soon to be in the hands of President George Bush (pending scheduling).
   While his art keeps excellent company, Strong is a man of the people. Currently , he is teaching art at Yavapai College and Pima Community College, in addition to private lessons. Every weekend, he can be found painting outside on the northeast corner of Campbell and Grant, where seventeen of his paintings are on display at Artists at Work gallery . Why not come down and meet your neighbor? For more information on Dale Strong, visit http:// w w w. a r t i s t d a l e s t r o n g . com.