Biography
Dolores Bartholomew was born in Buffalo, New York and attended SUNY at Buffalo, the University of Maryland at College Park and the University of Oxford. She has led a dual life of both scientist and artist with professional activities in both realms. Her science was meant to support her art endeavors, as being the loving daughter, Dolores followed her mom’s advice when asked should I go to college for science or art? Her mom advised her that one needed a career in science to support their career in art. So while majoring in science Dolores pursued art courses as her electives. Her first showing was a group show held at Blue Mountain College at SUNY at Buffalo where she utilized algae and micropipettes to create a small wall sculpture. As her scientific career took off, she pursued honing her skills in graphic art in a certificate program at the University of DE. When her science career took her to England, she experimented in stained glass work. Dolores also developed T-shirt art with scientific themes that she would give as gifts to graduate and postdoctoral students as they left Oxford to pursue research in other labs. Upon returning to the States, Dolores learned the value of her drawing diaries that she kept throughout her collegiate and science life while attending DCAD and working with artist and poet laureate E. Jean Lanyon. As at this time her science career was put on hold and the drawing diaries soon became the bread and butter of her art career. Dolores also developed an interest in illustrating and writing children books at this time and now has several books in various forms of completeness.
Upon being one of the top three winners of The Chadds Ford Wine Label Design Contest, her art career journeyed into another direction. Being asked to produce solo shows and to show in juried exhibitions, Dolores has developed a very successful award winning series of work. In this endeavor, subject matter for her work has been derived from her life experiences as a mother, step-mother and the effects of the outside world and national media that seem to push families both about and apart rather than bringing strength and pulling them closer together. As such she has been inspired to develop a series of art that she calls “Meanings of the Heart” in which her goal is to investigate and reveal ways that families can come back together and form bonds that create loving, heartfelt individuals. This message is so important to her that she utilized her scientific training skills and researched information on how the brain works to create memories and how the brain learns. This research has been the source of the development of her style that is proving effective in touching the emotions of those who stop and view her images and helping to provide joy and strength to all interested in creating the family as a loving haven for all.
Dolores is a juried member of the Delaware Foundation for the Visual Arts and a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She has held several positions as a board member with the DFVA and currently is Director of the art company, Meanings of the Heart Art, LLC. Dolores lives and works from her studio in Wilmington, DE.
