Tango Artist

DORA KANEGIES

A painter and a dancer I have always been, though Tango Passion took hold of me when we met two Springs ago.

I go to milangas with my black and red shoes and my drawing pad. I dance until my feet hurt, then I draw into the magic hours, when the dance floor thins and the dancers float about as if in another world. I draw very quickly without looking at the paper. The lines flow from my hand, directed by my eyes following the dancers and by my body still warm from dance.

Before I paint, I draw for hours watching The Tango Lesson or some other favorite. Then I enter my studio, turn the music up, and dance until I am filled. Only then do I paint directed by the Tango Spirit. What emerges is of me, of the music, of the Tango itself.

Dora's paintings are an improvisational dance of color created with unconventional combinations of materials. "I enjoy pressing rose petals, faux stones, or lace into thick textured gesso on paper or canvas. I then paint with watercolor, acrylic, oil pastel and oil stick. I work in opaque and transparent layers increasing depth and texture creating a dream-like space." Dvora paints faces, dancers, sensuous nudes, dreamscapes, candle lighting for blessing the light of Shabbat; all are woven with a thread of mystery that engages.

Receiving scholarships to Skidmore College and Yale University, Dvora received degrees with honors and continued to study art with Knox Martin in New York City and others at Columbia University.

Dvora Kanegis paints and teaches the passion of painting and drawing in her studio in Boulder, Colorado and exhibits widely. Her compelling paintings have been exhibited in numerous one person and group shows in galleries and museums through out the United States. Her work hangs in permanent collections at The University of Colorado, Boulder Community Hospital, Healthworks Inc, Bravin Architecture Inc. and many more public and private collections.