GPC history professor Dr. Ken Fenster, shown in front of Lori-Gene’s artwork, was married to the artist for 17 years. (Photo by Leita Cowart)

by Rebecca Rakoczy

Lori-Gene would be in the moment, swaying to the music; her graphite pencil in her hand moving almost automatically on the canvas as her eyes watched the musicians.

For more than a decade, the DeKalb College alumna and former Georgia Perimeter College art instructor was a familiar figure during rehearsals of the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra in the Cole Auditorium. The musicians were her muse. They would play energetically, and her sketches would capture that energy and movement, often on gigantic canvases.

The drawings became her signature pieces, exhibited and sold to art collectors throughout the world. Her work also is part of GPC’s permanent collection, hanging in the president’s conference room.

Lori-Gene died of complications from cancer in April 2014. She was 58.

Lori-Gene was a GPC alumna and art instructor. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Ken Fenster)

Don Dougan first met Lori-Gene at Georgia State University, while both were pursuing their master of fine arts degrees.

“She is actually the one who told me about a job teaching design at Georgia Perimeter,” says Dougan, now an instructor of 3-D Design and the gallery director at GPC’s Clarkston Campus.

The two became good friends after he got the job. Dougan curated and hung the retrospective of Lori-Gene’s work now on display at Clarkston’s Cole Fine Arts Gallery. The exhibit continues through December.

In November, the DSO honored Lori-Gene’s memory with a concert, which was followed by the Cole Gallery exhibit of her work.

Married for 17 years to GPC history professor Dr. Kenneth Fenster, Lori-Gene professionally was known simply as Lori-Gene, he says.

“Like Madonna,” he says with a laugh. “She was creative, feisty and vivacious and very high spirited. We met at (then DeKalb College) in 1994; started dating in 1996 and were married in 1997.”

While they loved each other, it was clear they had separate interests. Fenster is a historian of baseball lore, and “Lori-Gene couldn’t tell a double from a double-play,” he says. Instead, she received her inspiration from working with orchestras. She was first inspired to draw an orchestra while in art residency at the Banff Center in Canada, he says. That translated into a new passion.

GPC 3-D Design instructor Don Dougan, right, curated and hung the Lori-Gene exhibit at the Cole. Dougan and Dr. Ken Fenster are shown with one of the exhibit pieces. (Photo by Leita Cowart)

“She did a lot of her work from watching the DSO and the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra and also went frequently to the Emory Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Youth Wind Orchestra,” he says.

Although known best for her drawings, Lori-Gene actually was a trained ceramics instructor, receiving her undergraduate and Master of Fine Arts degrees in ceramic and sculpture, says fellow GPC art instructor Margee Bright-Ragland. They met during the 1980s, when they taught at GPC Dunwoody Campus. Both instructors went full time on the Clarkston Campus.

“She was an incredible artist in a lot of different mediums. And she was a fantastic teacher. She was good, but tough; she really prepared her students to understand what it would be like as an artist in real life,” says Bright-Ragland.
After Lori-Gene started concentrating on drawing, she continued to teach ceramics at GPC, and also taught drawing workshop for many years for the Governor’s Honors program in Valdosta, says Fenster. She left the college in 2003 to pursue her art full time.

“She had that incredibly long hair, and a lot of great energy,” says Bright-Ragland. “She was a lot of fun to be around. She was an awesome artist, and she will be missed.”

A special estate sale of her art is planned for April, as well as a show in Shellman, Ga. Fenster still maintains her website. www. lorigene.com