BARILL

Draftsman and filmmaker, Dorion Barill produces site-specific work by mining dream imagery and local history. Orbiting conditions of fear and irrationality, his artwork presents utopian visions on the threshold of consciousness. A compulsive sketcher, he focused his mark as a technical illustrator at Phil Fraley Productions Inc, contributing to the development of exhibits at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. He’s been awarded residencies in Rome and Cappadocia, with an exhibition record that includes the Palace of Saint Michael and Saint George in Corfu, Greece, the Three Rivers Arts Festival Juried Exhibition in Pittsburgh, and the Castello Colonna in Genazzano, Italy. He was a recipient of The Pittsburgh Foundation’s 2013 Investing In Professional Artists Grant. In 2010, he graduated with a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design.

dorionbarill.com

I imagined Sunrise as a work of social surrealism, harkening back to depression era murals that criticized the power structures responsible for declining socio-political conditions of working people.  My process involved drawing and watercolor techniques developed by baroque era miniaturists, adapting a tradition that was at one time reserved solely for the aristocracy.  The image acknowledges an uncertain future by reconceptualizing the symbolism of alchemy and divination.  But the message is a hopeful one.  I wanted to create an image of people working together to build a better society, an image that attributes strength to unity.