Cover Art

The covers of the Bellingham Review feature the imaginative artwork of Dale Gottlieb. Please take a minute and enjoy Gottlieb’s paintings and read explainations of her most recent contributions in her own words.

Devotion

(acrylic on wood panel)

Gottleib writes: “I’ve been working on a series of paintings, which explore the realm of devotion. How does it look? How does it feel? What does it communicate when it’s felt? Is it transferrable? These are some the questions I have been painting.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #63

That’s the Truth Ruth

(acrylic on paper)

Gottleib writes: “Inspired by Spike Lee’s movie, ‘Do the Right Thing’ and my childhood friend Ruth.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #62

The Power of Love

(5’ x 4’, rug)

Gottlieb writes: I quoted Jimi Hendrix for this piece; the rug was part of my May 2008 show entitled, ‘Peace, Love, War No More.’ All my work in this show was inspired by the upcoming 2008 Presidential election, an opportunity for our country to make new choices that could bring us long-awaited and necessary change.

–Bellingham Review, Issue #61

It Was 1930 and I Was at the Beach

(Gouache on wood panel)

Gottlieb writes: This painting is part of a series about sleep and dreaming. The past, present and future exist simultaneously.

–Bellingham Review, Issue #60

Woman and Owl

Gottlieb writes: “Happy 30th Anniversary Bellingham Review! Thank you for providing our community, and beyond, with excellent prose and poetry all these years and for giving me the opportunity to provide paintings for your cover for the last ten years! It’s been a pleasure to be included in creating work for this jewel in the Northwest crown.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #59

Green Man and Dog

Gottlieb writes: “Inspired by myths and folklore, this painting was part of a series based on how my personal myths are created as a result of learning other peoples’ myths. Green Man and his dog are muses of mine.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #58

Point of View

Gottlieb writes: “Almost everything is interpretive. Interpretation is biased and based on one’s point of view.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #57

For Nena

Gottlieb writes: “I painted this with my friend Nena in mind. It’s a prayer for her health and well-being.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #56

Tread Softly

Gottlieb writes: “Tread Softly,” a preliminary painting for the rug “Tread Softly,” uses the last line of a W.B. Yeats poem, “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.” In my image, a Tibetan lama walks through the world asking us to tread softly, because we tread on his dreams.

–Bellingham Review, Issue #55

The Elephant’s Child

Gottlieb writes, “The Elephant’s Child was inspired by Bobby McFerrin’s and Jack Nicholson’s reading of the Kipling story.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #54

Blue

Gottlieb writes, “Blue is a vision that comes to me when I listen to ‘Kind of Blue’ by Miles Davis.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #53

“More Happy Times”

Gottlieb writes, “In reaction to 9/11, I felt the need to have stability and hope beneath my feet, for everyone to share. This image is one of three rugs in the ‘Happy’ series.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #52

Hope is a Moral Obligation

Gottlieb writes, “Tony Kushner, the playwright, said this to the graduating class of 2002 at Vassar. I wish Washington would put this phrase on our license plates. The Pacific Northwest, for me, has always represented a hopeful future. Our natural surroundings nurture the hope spot inside each of us.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #51

Tom and Jack

Gottlieb writes, “Tom and Jack was commissioned by my good friends Tom and Jack for their new house. It’s a portrait of them as a couple and as individuals.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #50

Crow

Gottlieb writes, “The crow’s form invades the landscape, with shape, color and cawing. I like the sound of his arrival. It brings me luck.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #49

Friedle

Friedle is one of a collection of works titled, Kinder Spirit. Friedle Dicker-Brandeis was a Bauhaus artist at Terezin, a Czechoslovakian concentration camp billed as the “perfect” Jewish ghetto, promised by the Nazis to be safe, comfortable and dignified. Dicker-Brandeis helped the children to write poetry and make art in hope that it would encourage them to survive the Nazis. She smuggled her own art supplies into the camp and gave them to the children to use. The women in the painting take a moment to remember Friedle before they enjoy their food.Gottlieb writes, “The children’s little spirits, powerless against real monsters, were visible on the pages of the books I used for this project. They awakened a sense of kinship in me.”

–Bellingham Review, Issue #48