Boston Sculptors Gallery

Donna Dodson: Elephant Tribe
November 11-December 20, 2009
Opening reception: Saturday November 14th, 3-5pm
SOWA First Friday Reception: December 4th, 5-8pm
Gallery hours: Wednesday-Sunday, 12pm-6pm

Boston Sculptors Gallery is pleased to present ‘Elephant Tribe:’ Donna Dodson’s first solo exhibition of her carved wooden sculptures. This show presents 16 different interpretations of an elephant headed female form. For Dodson, the elephant represents power, sensitivity, strength, and wisdom. These feminine archetypes or goddess figures represent her vision of womankind.

The Hindu elephant god Ganesh inspires Dodson’s work but all of her figures are female. Her studies of African sculptures and Native American totems inform her elephants. In the process of carving, the ears are developed realistically but in the form, Dodson implies headdresses, helmets and hair-dos. Dodson’s monolithic and serene sculptures are enhanced by the use of paint whereby color transforms wood sections into objects such as tusks, gloves and hair. Dodson is inspired by Jessica Stockholder’s interplay of color and form in her art work as well as Cynthia Moss’s field studies of African elephants. The sculptures of Deborah Butterfield, Daisy Youngblood, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Elizabeth Catlett and Rona Pondick influence her style.

Dodson uses logs of osage orange from her grandfather’s farm in Illinois, and ash, pine, and maple from New England. Each piece of wood speaks to the artist in a different voice. She sculpts with a chainsaw and a belt sander as well as chisels, rasps, and files. The wood’s surfaces are smoothed out with sandpaper, colored with paint or pigment and finished in varnish and wax. Her pieces range from one to four feet tall, and one to two feet in diameter. These iconic goddesses are crafted in the manner of fine woodworking similar to the sculptures of Brancusi, Moore, and Puryear. They are unique objects and each piece has a magical presence.

Donna Dodson graduated cum laude from Wellesley College in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts. Her pre-med studies and her passion for Egyptian art led her to study wood sculpture with Joseph Wheelwright at his studio in Boston in 1995 and then stone sculpture at the Carving Studio in Vermont. She continued her studies in sculpture with Peter Haines at his studio in Cambridge where she learned how to abstract and resolve bronze forms. Since 2000, Dodson has been honored with solo shows in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Kansas, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Dodson enjoys public speaking, and has been a guest speaker in conferences, panels and forums at the Boston Public Library, University of Rhode Island, School of Visual Art and Stonehill College. In May 2007 she started the Art Salon Boston at her studio to meet artists of all disciplines and host monthly conversations on topics of interest to artists in Boston and beyond.

Elephant tribe will be shown concurrently with the sculpture of Peter DeCamp Haines.

Trumpeting Elephant, 39" tall, osage orange wood, pigment & paint, 2009

Association for Research on Mothering

Mothering and the Environment Conference:
The Natural, The Social, and The Built
October 22-25, 2009, York University, Toronto, Canada
MOTHERING AND CREATIVITY panel: Friday, October 23, 2009
The Mystical Relationship between Human Beings and the Animal Kingdom – Donna Dodson (Presenter)
Madonna Owl, 20" tall, pine wood & paint, 2003

Gallery Ehva

Donna Dodson, Andy Moerlein, Fawn Potash, Rob Westerberg
July 3-15, 2009
Opening Night Soup & Bread: Pumpkin Soup and Dill Chive Sourdough Bread
Friday July 3rd, 6p-8p
Gallery Ehva
74 Shank Painter Road
Provincetown, MA 02657

Empress Penguin, cherry wood & paint, 26" tall, 2005
Photo Credit: Bruno Giust

Pecha Kucha Night

Pecha Kucha Boston 10
Wednesday May 27th
Mantra, 52 Temple Pl, Boston (near Park St T)

What is Pecha Kucha Night?
(courtesy of the website)

'Pecha Kucha Night, devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (Klein Dytham architecture), was conceived in 2003 as a place for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.

Pecha Kucha (which is Japanese for the sound of conversation) has tapped into a demand for a forum in which creative work can be easily and informally shown, without having to rent a gallery or chat up a magazine editor. This is a demand that seems to be global – as Pecha Kucha Night, without any pushing, has spread virally to over 100 cities across the world. Find a location and join the conversation.'

I showed some images of my new series of elephant headed goddess figures: Prom Queen, poplar wood & paint, 31" tall, 2009; Elephant Queen, white cedar & paint, 19" tall, 2009; Elephant Matador, cherry wood & paint, 20" tall, 2008; Elephant princess, white cedar & pigment, 19" tall, 2008; Golden elephant, osage orange & paint, 36" tall, 2008; Iron Lady, polychrome wood & paint, 38" tall 2007; White elephant, polychrome wood & paint, 23" tall, 2007; Asian elephant, yellow pine & paint, 32" tall, 2007; Elephant bride, cherry wood & paint, 19" tall, 2005; Madam elephant, cherry wood, 38" tall, 2004 (Photo Credit: Bruno Giust)

The Art Salon Boston: Open House & Open Studio

Featuring the artwork of...
Jocelyn Almy-Testa
June August
Gloria Carrigg
Robin Chandler
Clara Angelina Diaz
Donna Dodson
Kathleen Fink
Chuck Lathrop
Jeannine Hunter Lazzaro

Saturday & Sunday, March 28th & 29th, 11a-6pm at Donna Dodson's studio, 93 Forest Hills Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130. For more information call (617) 983-2059 or email donnadodsonartist at gmail dot com.

The Art Salon Boston is an open group of artists in the greater Boston area that meets monthly to discuss all aspects of the visual arts, poetry, music, architecture, crafts, dance, performance, theater, creative writing and share opportunities, announcements of upcoming shows and information on technical resources.

*Update: Jessica Burko has written about the upcoming Art Salon Boston Open House & Open Studio Event for the Boston Arts Examiner, Here's the link to the article.

Earth Mother, 20" tall, mulberry wood, 2009

Provincetown Artist Registry

I was chosen as artist of the month for March by the Provincetown Artist Registry which 'is a directory of artists who have come to this town--some have lived here for years, some only passed through, some came and came back and came back again. Each has added shape, color, texture and spirit to our rich and shifting artistic landscape.' To see my artwork that I have shown with the Provincetown Art Association and Museum over the years, click here. For more information about Provincetown, click here.

Ugly Duckling, 30" tall, polychrome & laminate wood, stone base, 2005
Photo Credit: James Zimmerman

Boston World Partnerships

I was recently invited to join Boston World Partnerships as a Connector in the Creative Capital sector of the economy of the city of Boston. Today, James Smith wrote an article in the Boston Globe that features the Boston World Partnerships and announces the website launch, called 'Boston nonprofit looks to link global innovators.'

Career Apple Inc.

I was recently interviewed for a profile page on Career Apple Inc. To read about my beginnings as an artist, my inspirations as a sculptor as well as why I love my work, what a typical day is like, what the challenges are and what the upside is to my career click here. I also discuss my education and training, how I got started and what traits it helps to have as an artist and as an entrepreneur.
Photo Credit: George Hovorka

Boston Media Makers

I attended my first Boston Media Makers meeting in January 2009 and met alot of really cool people who are into making media with everything from twitters to blogs, podcasts to video logs, photos to films, social media to online networks, web 2.0 to wiki. The group was hosted by Steve Garfield who is also the founder of the group and the online community of Media Makers. After the meeting, C.C. Chapman asked me if I took commmissions and I said yes. He wanted me to interpret the tattoo of a shaman he has on his arm as one of my sculptures. Here's an image of his tattoo that was inspired by the work of the artist Bill Worrell .

I chose a piece of wenge for the shaman I was commissioned to create for C.C. Chapman. This is the second male figure I have created in my series of animal headed-human bodied mythological figures and I enjoyed the challenge to interpret the ancient symbol of the shaman. We discussed the Native American interpretation as a deer headed figure, which made sense since white tailed deer are native to North America and New England. Since it is wintertime, I chose to carve the head without the antlers since deer shed their antlers at this time of year and re-grow them in the springtime. With this in mind, I created the shaman to embody regeneration and renewal.

Instead of the spiral of eternity, I chose to let the wood grain speak for itself since wood has its own language. Instead of the ritual cloth around the neck, I chose a long robe for the deer such as the kind a priest or a prophet might wear. This might be seen as a holy symbol or as a spiritual guide since a shaman is concerned with the spirit world.

I chose to articulate the eyes since the shaman is a ‘seer’ and to exaggerate the ears since finding one’s way or true path in life involves ‘listening’ to hear your own voice, and to hear the truth that others are speaking. The piece was delivered to C.C. Chapman at the February 2009 meeting of the Boston Media Makers and Steve Garfield took some videos of the unveiling and posted them on Qik and Youtube.

Images: Shaman, 11" tall, wenge, 2009 by Donna Dodson





Tattoo image courtesy of C.C. Chapman's photostream on Flickr

Bill Worrell is represented by Karin Newby Gallery in Arizona

Providence Art Windows

Matriarchs and Goddesses of the Modern Era:
Artistic Collaboration
with Charlanne Kallay
September 18-November 21
University of Rhode Island
Providence Campus Library
80 Washington Street
Providence, RI 02903

Opening reception,
September 18th 6-8 PM

Artist talk by the sculptor Donna Dodson, Thursday November 13th at 1pm

Meet the Artists during Gallery Night: Providence 2008 on Thursday October 16th & Thursday November 20th, 5-9p

Madam Elephant, 38" tall, polychrome cherry, 2003