INTRODUCTION

Upon discovering the paintings of Dolores Chiappone, I was immediately enamored. Reading her life story, I was inspired with compassionate fascination. Despite notable exhibitions and an inspiring body of work, beyond her home page there was little more to find of her online. Inspiration resounding, I was compelled to reach out. On October 3rd, 2021, I spoke with Dolores on the phone for nearly three hours. Our talk was filled with her illuminating insights and fantastic stories--both real and surreal. 

Born in 1931 in Rochester, New York, Dolores and her family moved to Los Angeles in the 1940s. A teenage pregnancy lead her to elope and marry following her high school graduation. Having studied and made art in adolescence, Dolores began painting oil still lifes and taking drawing classes. With the birth of her second child, she experienced postpartem depression. Combined with years of paternal and spousal abuse, Dolores experienced a psychological breakdown. It was in 1958 that she found herself undergoing experimental psychedelic therapy with Dr. Oscar Janiger, the cousin of poet Allen Ginsberg and the man who introduced LSD to Aldous Huxley. Before the drug was made federally illegal in 1966, Dr. Janiger was pioneering research into LSD therapy in California with hundreds of people from all walks of life, including a specialized study on artists. 

Dolores' work with Dr. Janiger helped her to find a radically new way of seeing the world, a view which transformed her life. Separated from her children, Dolores spent the 1960s living in Mexico, surviving and thriving through her art. Dolores' post-therapy art merged plant, animal, and human figures in fractilian union. Her imagery is derived from her dreams, memories of a Pre-Columbian pastlife, and magical intentionality. Her philosophy is rooted in the metaphysical tradition of the "musica universalis" or the "music of the spheres," wherein sound, color, number, and form conjoin the cosmic and the terrestrial through Universal principles.

Now in her 90s, Dolores has produced a vast body of work, each a unique fractal of cosmic consciousness, fusing night and day, human and animal, dream and reality. And after speaking with her at length, it became clear that I was in the presence of a truly illuminated person. In the talk that follows Dolores takes us through the highs and lows of her life as we explore the visionary art that has guided her life's journey. We talk about what it feels like to break into a million pieces and turn into a jaguar. We reflect on the gift of laughter, listen to her paintings, and treasure the sky within.

All music by Matt Marble and David Moreno

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