Collection: "Hurricane Dorian," organized by NIAD artist Dorian Reid (online exhibition)

“And then I started using my fists, boom boom boom, and then I made the town and the houses in the neighborhood. There was the hurricane named after me. So I started off doing hurricane level two, then slowly built up to level three, then up to level five, and I destroyed that area.

And I’m feeling like I’m getting destroyed, like I’m destroying myself with the [Destroyed X] series.”

NIAD artist Dorrie Reid wants to make a statement with the cathartic, performative work she selected for her online exhibition, Hurricane Dorian.

“If I took it out on canvas, I’m making a statement. Of how I feel. Right now I feel lost.”

The Destroyed X series began before the pandemic, but it came to be an important outlet for the frustrations of lockdown.

“I’ve been writing down all the anger, all the hostility I had, I’ve been getting it out by writing it on my art so when I do my art the anger I had, the hostility around me, I’ve been taking it out on my art."

The dramatic climax of the Destroyed X series came after her return to the NIAD studio. Ceramics Facilitator Steen Kjorlie asked Dorian if she had ever considered doing a Destroyed X in clay. She jumped at the idea, and channeled the destructive energy of her namesake hurricane in flattening a clay village she had created just for that purpose.

Hurricane Dorian is a powerful statement in words, actions, paint and clay.