Dena & The Details

Photography by Rika Mady (@rikiimy)
Interview by Isis Nicole (@theisisnicole)

Isis Nicole: Can we start with an introduction to who you are / where you're from?

Dena Winter: My name is Dena Winter and I’m a multidisciplinary artist and designer living in Brooklyn, NY. I grew up in Minnesota and still feel really connected to the midwest too. Over the years my practice has included digital video art (under the name May Waver), painting, set design for children’s theater, props and production design for films. I don’t limit myself to one medium so my resume is sort of eclectic.

IN: Who (or what) are your main influences?

DW: Nature and animals; my childhood watercolor teacher Sandra Muzzy, who introduced me to the idea of a visual journal; production designers like Catherine Martin and Hannah Beachler;

fairy tales, myths, dreams; early net art and internet culture; the practices of friends like photographer/director Courtney Yates and musician Nelle JuneAnderson (Soubrette); Isamu Noguchi; MarcChagall; Pipilotti Rist; David Lynch; romantic movies of the 1990’s and 2000’s; antique markets.

IN: How are you able to sustain your motivation during the pandemic?

DW: Feeling like my life depends on it, feeling called to make things. And I don’t want to let people down.I like what Martha Graham says about keeping yourself open and aware of your urges. “Keep the channel open... No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest.”

IN: What's a busy day in your life look like?

DW: Lately my busiest days are on set – waking up for an early call time, hauling a truck-full of props and set pieces to a location, and for 12 hours moving as quickly as possible to arrange each shot perfectly. You have to be in sync with the rest of the crew, it’s like trying to do choreography. But the slow days between jobs are really important to me. I need time to work on personal projects, like building a new house for the feral cats who live in my backyard, tending to my garden, walking around the neighborhood with my sweetheart.

IN: What do you love most about production design and prop styling?

DW: For me it’s the way details matter. Objects and materials being specific and special. That’s what I get really excited about. I always think about this shot in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors: Blue, when Juliette Binoche holds a sugar cube in her coffee, and in close-up we watch it slowly soak up the liquid. In an interview, Kieślowski describes testing various sugar cubes to find the perfect one that would absorb the coffee in exactly five seconds. He says, “everybody’s life is worthy of scrutiny, has its secrets and dramas.”Even without knowing this explicitly, in that moment we feel it. To me, this level of care is a kind of perfection that feels generous to the viewer and creates a sensation of the sublime.But on a regular day-to-day basis I just get a lot ofjoy from digging in thrift stores and making things by hand.

IN: What is the most exciting thing that you’ve learned about yourself this year?

DW: It’s not exciting, but I’ve had some of the most difficult experiences of my life during this pandemic. I learned that I’m strong enough to get through it.

IN: What are you working on next?

DW: I’m designing some special bottles for a project conceived by perfumer Marissa Zappas and candlemaker Janie Korn. I used to have a day job in the perfume industry, which got me interested in scent as an art form. This summer I finally got to take Marissa’s introduction to perfumery class. She’s the real deal. So look for that release this fall!

IN: How would you describe your style in 3 words?

DW: Romantic, playful, functional. A lot of my clothes are also handed down from various women in my family, so I would add “sentimental.”

Follow @dena.winter on Instagram

Originally published in IN #10, FW 2021/22