Dayhoff uses computer screen as easel

By Lyndi McNulty Eye for Art

Published: Monday, November 16, 2009 1:24 PM EST

http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2009/11/16/advocate_of_eldersb
urg/columns/eye_for_art/doc4b0197d38917e200489972.txt

Kevin Dayhoff greeted me with a quick smile and a familiar “How’s your
behavior?” as he peered from behind his computer screen as I entered the Off
Track Art gallery at 11 Liberty St. in
downtown Westminster last week for an
interview.

He was a collage artist at work. However,

it was not the traditional cluttered scene
of an artist’s studio. There was no easel,
piles of images and collage materials, an
array of glues or even a palette plate of
paint daubs sitting on top of boxes of art
supplies. His canvas was his computer
screen, and he was trying to get an
image to paste properly into a collage.

The gallery is wonderful display of the

work of 14 other artists. They all belong
in an artists’ cooperative, Off Track Art,
situated alongside the railroad tracks in the center of town at Main and Liberty
streets.

Dayhoff is a lifelong Carroll County artist. A native of Westminster, he has had

a wide range of experience and interests. He has been a landscaper, artist,
writer and even the local town mayor.

He inherited his art talent from his parents. His father was an artist-painter-
cabinetmaker. His mother is a culinary artist. In 1958, his interest in art
surfaced when he was only five years old. People took a special interest in his
drawing. His mother encouraged him draw a pirate when he was 5 and entered
it into a drawing contest.

All through Carroll County Public Schools, Dayhoff drew, created collages, and
wrote short stories. He was the boy sports editor for the Westminster High
School yearbook and collaged many of the photographs in the 1971 yearbook –
the year he graduated. In addition, Dayhoff studied photography in the 1960s
in 4-H. Later, as a landscape designer, he took photographs of the properties
and expanded that into his artwork.

When asked about what it was like to grow up an artist in Carroll County,
Dayhoff has nothing but praise.

“There is no better place to be an artist than Carroll County. I have rarely met
disapproval, only encouragement,” he said.

As he grew older, he discovered that people would pay him to draw landscape
designs and install landscaping, or 3-D
sculptures with plants, as he refers to
landscape contracting.

Dayhoff was fortunate to make a living from

his favorite activities, drawing and writing
and working with plants. After he did that
for 25 years in Carroll County, he retired in
1999.

During the “farmhouse years,” in the later

1980s through the 1990s, as he calls them,
he spent stolen moments drawing, writing
short stories and creating mixed-media
assemblages with found objects while
raising nursery stock and drawing
landscape designs for a living.

Dayhoff drew landscape designs until late

in the evening. When the project was finished, he still had excess artistic
energy. As a result, he worked on his art until the wee hours of the morning,
only to start work again at 8 a.m.

Since his radial arm saw and woodworking tools were in his living room, it
allowed him to take advantage of moments throughout the day and in between
appointments to work on mixed media assemblages. He also learned to wear a
bow tie instead of necktie.
“There were fewer exciting interactions between the bow tie and the radial arm
saw than the necktie,” he quickly added.

Nothing was safe from his artist talents. He collaged his entire farmhouse
including the walls and his kitchen cabinets, one of which is on display at the
Off Tract Art studio.

In 1981, Dayhoff had his first one-person show at the Theater Project in
Baltimore. Around the same time, he met Wasyl Palijczuk, Peggy Slater, Naomi
Benzil and Linda Van Hart and began showing at the Carroll County Arts
Council at the Davis Library building, now Lamb Awards in Westminster. He
has had an art show at every facility the Carroll County Arts Council has had
except for the current location.

Growing up an artist in Carroll County has provided Dayhoff with a pragmatic

approach to art. In addition to making a living drawing landscape designs, he
has made and sold many bookshelves and furniture created out of found wood.

“I have always understood that because I am an artist the world does not owe
me a living, so I have applied an artistic and creative approach to earning my
keep,” he reflected.

Dayhoff is also known for the postcards he draws and collages and then mails
to his friends from vacations and for holidays. His earliest memories of this
type of art, goes back to when he drew on his mother’s 3-by-5-inch recipe
cards. “That grew into making research notes for writing projects on index
cards and whenever I got a chance I would draw on them, too,” he
remembered.

“Later I drew on the index cards I carried with me to write down notes for my
landscaping jobs. I’ve tried to do a drawing every day on my index cards or in a
notebook I always carry with me, every day since the 1970s. As my wife will tell
you, we have boxes and boxes of collaged drawing notebooks and index cards,”
Dayhoff said.

Caricatures of everyday people and still-life’s abound on these cards and in his
collages and computerized artwork today. Dayhoff scans his cards into his
computer and collages and colors them while on the screen, or collages them
with a combination of drawings and photographs.

In recent years, after some much needed instruction and help from McDaniel
art professor Sue Bloom; he does his collaging and art on the computer, which
is what he was doing when I found him for this interview.

When asked about the power of art in our community, Dayhoff is evangelical.
“Arts programs and cultural events add to our sense of community and quality
of life by bringing people together for a shared experience. The power of art
strengthens a region, spiritually and financially.

“Mind you, a city isn’t transformed by the quality and value of its arts and
cultural programs, although that doesn’t hurt. But the power of art contributes
to a community’s broader sense of vibrancy, optimism, and self-worth,” he
said.

According to Dayhoff, Arts and cultural programs help attract business and
economic development to a community. These initiatives also attract financial
reward from the visitors it attracts to our Westminster community and
shopping districts.

“Growing up an artist has always been an advantage in my life as it teaches

you to be a collaborative and creative problem solver and think outside of the
box,” Dayhoff added.

“If working buys the house and service is the rent we pay for living, for me, art
and culture gives us a certain higher meaning and quality of life. To
paraphrase Tennessee Williams: ‘When I stop working the rest of the day is
posthumous. I’m only really alive when I’m writing’ and doing art.”

Visit Kevin Dayhoff at www.kevindayhoffart.com.

— Lyndi McNulty is the owner of Gizmos Art in Westminster.

[20091116 Dayhoff uses computer screen as easel by McNulty]

My Off Track Art work station on August 21, 2009 Kevin Dayhoff http://tinyurl.com/yegvz39

Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/qzhwj or here:

http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/258030332/my-off-track-art-work-station-on-august-
21-2009