Painting on feathers is trademark for area artist

Waseca resident Dean Dykema remembers a walk he took in 2010. “I was going along a trail, and there was a goose feather,” he describes. “I picked it up, looked it over, and thought to myself, ‘I wonder if I could paint on this.’”

It turns out, he could.

He still has that feather, decorated with a hand-painted goose.

Based on the work Dykema has continued to do ever since finding that feather, perhaps the most important asset an aspiring feather artist needs is ingenuity. After that, the list seems to include a certain amount of talent, thinned acrylic paint, small brushes, and time.

In the past 15 or so years, he says he has completed 135 paintings on feathers. Most have been custom orders with a very diverse array of subjects; the majority have been animals and wildlife, with an occasional truck, bridge, or nature scene.

“Whatever people request, that’s what I paint,” he says. Dykema maintains a website titled “Painted feathers by Dean” which shows samples of his work including his grandest to date–a full turkey tail fan about two feet wide with a woodland scene featuring a trio of turkeys.

People from all around the country have connected with him.  “They usually start out with a question,” he summarizes. “It’s often something like ‘Can you paint a moose on a feather?’ 

“My answer is ‘I’ll give it a shot!’”

Dykema has quite a collection of turkey feathers on hand. He says he acquires them three different ways, including bartering for them, getting them from friends who hunt, and sometimes purchasing them. He says as he conceives what the finished piece should look like, he determines how many feathers should be used to create a suitable surface. He fastens them together using spray adhesive. He also makes decisions about whether to prepare the surface in any way or paint directly on the fibers of the feathers, whose individual hair-like strands are called “barbs,” and have natural structural elements that cause them to interlock with each other.

“You have to use really small strokes,” he observes regarding the technique. “More ‘dabs’ than ‘strokes,’ really.”

As for his ability as a painter, Dykema says the skill comes to him somewhat naturally. “I’ve been painting since I was 12,” he recalls. “I just enjoy creating images.”

Dykema, 63, and his wife Jodi have been married for 42 years. The two spent the first half of their married life together in the military, with Dean serving as a criminal investigator with the Marines in Quantico, Virginia; El Toro, California; and Okinawa, Japan. After 12 years of active service, Dean entered the reserves and the couple lived in the Twin Cities.

The move to Waseca happened in 1995, when Dean was among the staff members who helped open the Federal Correctional Institution. 

His trademark artistic skill throughout his time at the prison, he mentions, was drawing caricatures, typically for milestones like moving to a new location. “I would draw the caricature, and leave plenty of room around it” he describes, “then people would sign it and write messages, and we would give it as a gift.”

In certain ways, Dean observes, he does not fit the mold of a “typical artist type.”

“My painting room is organized and neat,” he points out. “I do one project at a time, and I finish it before I move on to the next one.”

Since retiring in 2015, he has painted on glass, refined his skills at woodworking, and done a variety of special projects, including paintings for the state waterfowl, pheasant and turkey hunting stamps. He has placed as high as third in the competition, but has never had his painting selected.

An interesting challenge of the contests, he adds, is that the full-sized painting is reproduced down to the size of the stamp, then judged. “The colors change when the size is reduced,” he observes. “It’s really hard to visualize how it’s going to look when it’s that small.”

Dean says he can become deeply engrossed in the work of painting, suddenly discovering he has been at work for six or eight hours.

The large fan, he mentions, required more than 100 hours to complete.

Once the painting is finished, he attaches it to matting and frames it. After it’s fastened and enclosed, he says, the finished product can be shipped.

Dean’s sense of creative adventure led to another special project he enjoyed. A Utah hunter asked whether he could paint on a moose antler. After Dean agreed to “give it a shot,” the hunter sent him the horn.

The two talked over possible subjects for the painting; Dean eventually recommended the shape and angle of the surfaces lent themselves to an eagle about to land on its nest carrying a trout in its claws.

The customer was so pleased with the finished product, he made structural changes above his fireplace so the antler could be mounted there.

“That’s one of the biggest sources of pleasure for me,” Dean states. “That ‘wow’ factor.

“It’s always a blast to get that smile and sense of appreciation.”

In addition to the agreed-upon price, Dean says he frequently receives thank you cards after customers receive their purchases. “And sometimes extra money, because they say I should have charged more for my work.”

In between commissions, he enjoys various projects for fun, including cornhole boards and “whatever I happen to think of.”

For his son Jamie and future daughter-in-law Rachel, he acquired a wakeboard and painted images of Mickey and Minnie Mouse near the tip, capitalizing on Rachel’s status as a “Disney super fan.”  As a joke, he painted an “evil clown” version of Mickey on the back side, making it look as if the horror figure has torn its way through the board and is about to crawl out.

He couldn’t resist, he said, since his son particularly dislikes clowns.

“I just like to keep busy,” he says lightheartedly. “I can always find a project to take on.”