10.16.2020 | DIGS.NET 55
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strong pulse"), her designs may have a global
vibe, but her studio is a product of its environment,
aesthetically quirky and housed in a building out
on a pier. It is, she says, "surrounded by a cast
of salty characters and local flavor. My floor is
the wood of the pier. Ceilings are high, light is
plentiful, I hear seagulls all day and I have a
garage door that opens up to the docks." The
space was more than she needed to paint. Still,
she says, expressing her psychology-primed
mind, "My feeling about space is that if the
vibe is good, you take it and let it tell you how it
should be used." In so doing she discovered the
need to "execute on a big vision."
Big vision is her thing. After seguing from
advanced studies in psychology to study fine
art with a focus on painting, Dugan began her
career in the decorative arts, broadened her
scope to interiors and painting commissions,
and went on to start a fabric line, which she
largely rolled into Serena & Lily. "Building that
product line, brand and business from scratch
is its own creative adventure and called on
much the same spirit," she says. "Now I find
myself coming full circle, still fully engaged and
enthralled with everything that first piqued my
interest, but with a bit more experience behind
me this time around."
With a studio to "put shape around my
creative interests and create a platform for
expressing what I had to say," says Dugan, she
is now designing textiles and wall coverings as
an extension of her work as an artist. The Serena
Dugan Studio Collection includes 13 distinct
patterns in fabrics, each available in multiple
colorways for a total of 58 fabrics, along with
seven wallcovering motifs, each also available
in multiple colorways for a total of 32. She's
also branched out into creating one-of-a-kind
decorative objects, from hand-painted leather
pillows to hand-glazed ceramic stools, all with
a wanderlust feel. Her paintings are vibrant and
ethereal, offering a porthole into how making art
influences her other creations. "I more or less
accepted that my form of art blended these
three categories, and my studio should reflect
that," she says. It reflects something else too—
big artistic vision. serenadugan.com
"My feeling about space is that if
the vibe is good, you take it and let
it tell you how it should be used."
