In a light-drenched, capacious studio at the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook, there is a feat of decorative artistry taking place that most of us will never have the privilege to experience first-hand, since the final destination for most of Dean Barger’s stunning installations is within private residences. But a disciple could make a pilgrimage to the many public sites where his work is transforming walls, ceilings, and floors across the country—from Chicago’s St. Regis Hotel to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Seal Harbor to a gilded staircase in Thomas Keller’s TAK Room restaurant in New York, to name a few. Barger and his stable of five fellow craftspeople create immersive bespoke murals, planned meticulously to operate within the confines of the physical world, but brought to life through the alchemical reaction of paint and human emotion. Barger’s reputation has proliferated through a kind of whisper network; viewers are enveloped by his impressionistic landscapes that are as much a conduit of emotion as a paean to the natural world—and quietly spread the gospel.
Barger, a native Ohioan whose mother worked as a fashion illustrator, started drawing at an early age while taking Saturday classes at the Toledo Museum of Art. Like most boys, he began with muscular figures of Superman and Godzilla, but the heroes who captured his imagination soon evolved. Through dogged hustle in his twenties, Barger subsidized frequent trips to Europe where he spent weeks at a time absorbing inspiration and techniques from world-class art institutions. He became an enthusiastic acolyte of French Barbizon painters like Camille Corot, and their heirs at the Hudson River School. (Barger’s book of George Inness’ paintings has been denuded of numerous pages, torn out as beloved touchstones.) “All the edges are soft and not delineated in a harsh way,” Barger explains. “A lot of murals are heavy-handed and end up expressing every detail. But I would rather my murals be romantic. They invite the viewer to go into the space that we create. It’s why we call them dreamscapes instead of landscapes.”
A competitive wrestler in his youth, Barger still possesses the scrappiness that served him well on the mat and as a hungry upstart artisan. After art school, he drummed up work via ads placed in local newspapers, submitting his portfolio to designers from Cleveland to Detroit. His work consistently begat new opportunities—a trend that has since surged into a firehose of demand. Now there’s an endless supply of devoted, high-end interior designers eager to employ Barger’s luminescent touch, while the glitterati, from queens of pop to Middle Eastern royalty, covet access to the sylvan refuge of his work.
Barger made the leap from the Midwest to the East Village in the early ’90s, and soon thereafter kindled his love affair with the state of Maine, bewitched by its light, salty air and dramatic coastline. After attending a party in Northeast Harbor, Barger began ricocheting between the disparate islands of MDI and Manhattan, painting murals for refined locals of sophisticated taste and means. And rather than touting Barger’s name from digital rooftops via social media, the murals spoke discreetly but assuredly on his behalf.
Currently, Barger and his team are perfecting a 40-foot mural for a dining room in Northeast Harbor, commissioned by the child of a client with whom he first worked 30 years ago. This multi-generational resonance is meaningful to Barger, who looks for unique connections and challenges with every commission. A mock-up delineates how each architectural feature will intersect with the canvas. As painter Dave Faust softens the outline of a branch, Barger points out the silhouette of an iconic pine: “A lot of these are actual trees that I know. Most people on the island know them too. So they’re almost like portraits.”
