Photography and artistic creativity have been a part of Lonn’s life from an early age
First Photos: 1967 – Lonn Dugan used his first allowance at age 8 to buy a camera from a hotel vending machine. The family had just moved to Texas. Encountering a whole new visual world, he wanted to capture it!
First Fine Art: 1972 – A foil relief sculpture of the famous Alamo Fort was a prizewinner in a statewide art contest.
Experience and Training: 1985 – Commercial experience in photography, digital graphic art, advertising layout and design, and web design fueled a growing interest in digital photo editing techniques.
Middle Years:
Continued growth and experience in photography, commercial art, logos, magazine ads, newspaper ads, and etc.
First Fine Art Print: 2000 – Printed first Giclee print while running a one-man ad agency that had a nice scanner and large format printer. Work by local artists was scanned and reproduced, printing on canvas, heavy watercolor paper, or photo paper at about 30″ x 40″ on average and up to 4′ x 6′.
First Art Show: 2002 – Lonn printed one of his own images at 24″ x 36″ and submitted to a local art show. Dugan had been the photographer, the digital darkroom processor, airbrush artist, and print maker. Jurists refused the work, claiming it wasn’t “art”. They even accused him of scanning magazine covers and blowing them up to a 2′ x 3′ size. Lonn was set back by the rejection of the new art form of Giclee or original digital fine art prints.
Print Work For Other Artists:
After seeing what Lonn was doing with Giclee Printing, several local artists including Larry Golba and Neil Frankenhauser commissioned prints of some of their personal favorite pieces as a test. They were thrilled and startled, even a little intimidated by the accuracy of reproduction that was possible. But the art community was not completely ready for the digital revolution at this time.
First Museum Display: 2011 – The Toledo Museum of Art accepted a landscape photo to a Juried Exhibit. The Toledo Museum of Art is widely recognized worldwide as a powerful force in the curation and exhibition of fine art. It has also earned the title of “America’s Favorite Art Museum”.
Next Steps: 2017 – Digital Giclee printing technology has come a long way toward acceptance! Digital artists can now offer original fine art print of their best work to a global audience using the miracle of online gallery anf frame shops.
Let The Word Go Out:
Now that Lonn has begun exhibiting his work, he hopes that he might begin to win recognition, acclaim, and to sell his work. Correspondence and Inquiries welcome regarding changes to existing work or to discuss commissions by subject or special interest in location or technique.
