Flock Together

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Donna Dodson: Flock Together
January 4 - February 5, 2012

Opening reception: Friday January 6, 5 – 8 pm
Gallery Talk: Saturday January 21, 3 – 5 pm
Closing Reception: Friday February 3, 5 – 8 pm
Gallery hours: Wednesday - Sunday, 12 pm – 6 pm

Boston, MA: Boston Sculptors Gallery is pleased to announce ‘Flock Together:’ Donna Dodson’s second solo exhibition of her iconic wood sculptures. This show presents sixteen different interpretations of a bird-headed female form.

In this series, Dodson is exploring the idea that similar types of people choose to congregate with other like-minded souls, even if the similarities are beneath the skin, feather or breed, and not immediately apparent or obvious to the viewer. This series started with Cardinal, as if women could hold high office in the Catholic Church. Further imaginings led to the creation of Little Red Riding Hood, who is anything but little; White Stork, who is carrying a baby in her tummy instead of her beak; and Culture Vulture, who is highly cultured, deeply ravenous and hollow- lurking on the edges of culture to fill up.

The history of bird-headed female figures is as ancient as the goddess herself. Oftentimes, the animal human hybrid is meant to represent the stages of life, birth, marriage and death. Are Dodson’s figures representations of the stages in a woman’s life: birth, childhood, loss of innocence, mating, maturity, motherhood, old age, and death? Or do her figures allude to subtler stages of psychological growth and maturation, i.e. paradigm shifts in consciousness: the Little Match Girl - tending to the fire within, Red Tail Hawk, a school marm - for whom nothing escapes her watchful eye, or Bantam Babe- who is dominant as only a grandmother or matriarch of a family can be.

In general, Dodson likes taking on a negative stereotype like ‘Mother Hen’ and inverting the meaning of the image or misconception to shine new light on the truth or deeper meaning of perceived reality. Included in the exhibition are the artist’s color and compositional studies in watercolor, pencil and ink. These inhabit a psychological space, rather than the physical space of her sculptures, and are quick studies that demonstrate further possibilities of Dodson’s ideas. Fluttering about the gallery, they offer a vivid contrast to the central formation of the flock.

Flock Together' will be shown concurrently with 'Avian Language' by Andy Moerlein.

Update: Artscope magazine featured Flock Together and Avian language in its recent email blast, and on its blog. Boston Globe's, Global Business Hub featured an article on the global reach of the local arts community, with a focus on my experiences.

Image: Culture Vulture II, 40″ wood, paint 2011

Art Open House at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center

The MCCA Art Program began in 2005, just one year after the grand opening of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC). Over the last three years, they have developed a well-rounded art program that embraces the creative talents of Massachusetts’ artists – from experienced art professionals to emerging young artists honing their craft at art organizations, high schools and colleges. Their exhibition schedule changes frequently in order to fully tap into the artistic resources available here in the Commonwealth. They are very proud to offer a rotating schedule of contemporary art exhibitions, each thoughtfully designed to engage viewers from all walks of life.

Donna Dodson: Elephant Parade will be on view from December 2011-December 2012. Through the elephant-headed female figures that emerge from ash, pine and maple, Dodson appropriates for womankind the creature that has long been an incarnation of power and wisdom. The twelve elephants in the parade also reflect the animal's family group in the wild: females travel together in herds while males live alone. Donna uses a female elephant- headed goddess figure in her work to create a dozen formal iterations of this piece that explore female figureheads, and women as symbols of power such as a female Uncle Sam/Madam President, Indira Gandhi, Madame Chiang Kai Shek and Iron Lady/Margaret Thatcher.

The Hindu elephant god Ganesh inspires her work but all of the elephants are female. Studies of African sculptures and Native American totems inform Dodson’s figures. In the process of carving, the ears are developed realistically but as the form develops, they are transformed into headdresses, helmets and hair-dos. These 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.

She 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 Dodson 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. Dodson’s 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.

Update(s): Check out this video preview of the work. Thank you, Susan Merritt, for putting together this fabulous exhibit of art for the City of Boston to enjoy all year long! There is a featured write up of the exhibition on the Advantage Boston blog.

Image: Prom Queen, 31" tall, poplar, paint, 2009 by Donna Dodson

Working on my Artist Statement and Other News...

What do I believe about my artwork? My sculptures are heroic but interconnected. Not one is above the virtue of another. Each one is honored to be in the company of the others. They are all made greater by their association yet each one is an individual of their own.

What do I believe my artwork is about? Self expression. Autobiography. Self redemption. That I dare to evoke self hatred and indulge it, act it out, embody it, project it onto a form, in the female body, exorcise it from my body and my mind, and understand it, transform it, gain power over it, and myself in the process. Also to gain a skill that is marketable, is to redeem myself from poverty and to free myself of having to marry, or be dependent on a husband or partner for money. A platform of the self to stand upon. Self made woman.

Are my process and the finished sculptures the same thing?

Through the abstracted language of animal headed goddess figures. Human/animal. A believable fiction. A willful suspension of disbelief. Animals that talk, walk, wear clothes. A celebration of the goddess within. Her Entity. Divinity. Hybrid. Anthropomorphic. Make believe Iconography. In my church as a kid growing up, there were no icons or visual representations of women, or the divinity that was female. Not an animal mask on a human body, not a human head on an animal body, but the animal mind in the human body, and the line between logic and instinct, intellect and emotion, reason and intuition.

In the creation of my work, I feel it’s necessary to evoke a strong feeling about each piece that leads me to the point of daring to fulfill my vision, taking risks, listening to the piece, making mistakes, in the creation or completion. It’s the emotional investment in the reality of creating a sculpture that crystallizes the piece for me.

Sometimes I think up an idea, or a concept, and I imagine what the piece would be to go with that idea. But more often, I work from my intuition in the studio and once it’s completed, I can look and see the intentions behind the piece, or the desire from which it is born.

Feminist? Self-loving. Where does the animal in the body begin and end? How does the animal in the body express itself? Its appetites? Its vanity? Its social status? Its playfulness? Its survival? Its mind?

How can we imagine women as cardinals? Women as presidents? Women in power? Are they grand old gals? Grand dames? Larger than life? The girl next door? Fag hag? Gal pal? Working girl? Housewife? Mom? Matron? Matriarch? Vampire? Victim? Self-righteous? Pious? Slut? Whore? Good girl? Sex goddess? Power monger? Above it all? Breezy? Bare? Raw? Polished? Holier than thou?

How do girls become women? Mother, daughter, grandmother? Maiden, mother, crone? Fairy tales: Little red riding hood, little match girl, red wing black bird, tiger mom, white stork, bantam babe, dancing crane, seagull Cinderella, culture vultures, red tail hawks, brown pelicans, wood peckers, secretaries, nurses, teachers. Strength in numbers.

I've followed Jungians more than Freudians on psychoanalysis because the Jungians seemed more transcendent or spiritual, i.e. Nor Hall, The Moon and the Virgin and Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women who run with the wolves. In their writing they talk about female archetypes. The idea of the story that paints characters with words, that form pictures in our minds eye. The story that has a message, a meaning, a teaching, an allegory, an illusion that is open to interpretation in the imagination. I want my work to do the same thing. Enchantment. Not a literal meaning or symbol of a doctrine. Anime. Cartoons. New stories. Patterns. Stereotypes inverted. Robert Graves, The White Goddess. Encoded. Encrypted.

The Hindu elephant god Ganesh [remover of obstacles] inspired my last body of work but all of my figures were female. They took the form of a tribe, just as they organize themselves in the wild. The matriarchs lead and circle around the younger females. These were not literal studies of Ganesh- but original artworks from my imagination and each one was unique. What if Ganesh were female? The founder of the Shaker movement, Mother Anne believed all things have a male and female, manifestation. She believed she was the female incarnate of Christ, yet they remained a celibate community.

My studies of African sculptures and Native American totems inform my elephants. The idea that Native Americans teach kids about the wild by hunting, to respect the power and danger of an animal, where as American kids learn about animals through pets, stuffed animals and cartoon characters. Family Clan. Masks. Rituals. Stories. Tribal. Primitive. Animism. Animated. Performance. Dance.

I’m interested in the interplay of color and form. Especially Jessica Stockholder’s work where color is a transformational visual device, changing the way we see form. I’m interested in personality type and body language. Character and sexuality. Beauty and sensuality. I like Katharina Fritsch’s sculptures. Sacred figures are turned into pop icons with the use of color.

Look for my work in these upcoming exhibits...

Knight&Hammer Flat elephant jewelry collection at Daniela Corte 211 Newbury Street in Boston. 1⁄2” elephant links inspired by sculptor Donna Dodson's work.18K yellow gold over bronze bracelet, necklace and earrings from The GTAEF (Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation) Collection. Part of the Knight&Hammer's Jewelry with a ConscienceTM that is premiering November 17th.

Photos courtesy of Boldfacers.com.

THANKSGIVING SILENT ART AUCTION, Gallery Ehva, 74 Shankpainter Rd, Provincetown, MA
Preview opening and start of bidding - Friday, Nov 18, 6-8pm
Preview will continue all week, till Sat. Nov 26, Noon-2pm
Closing Party: Saturday, November 26, 4pm - 6pm ---> Wine, Music, Food!

Artful Giving for the Holiday: Paintings, Pottery, Jewelry & Sculpture
Now through December 24th at The Mill Brook Gallery and Sculpture Garden, 236 Hopkinton Road, Concord, NH 03301
Open House: Saturday, December 3rd 11-3 during ART CONCORD

Sculpture Scoop III - November 9 -13, 2011

Boston Sculptors Gallery presents Sculpture Scoop, a sale of sculpture, drawings and jewelry by all 36 gallery members. Scoop-up amazing artwork for under $500! Join us for the Opening Reception: November 8, 6-8 pm

This is a unique opportunity to own art created by some of the Boston areaʼs premier sculptors. Find a gift for the art lover in your life or begin your own sculpture collection.

Small Works. Big Deals

International Artist Residencies and Symposia: A Panel Discussion

Saturday October 15th, 2011, 2-4pm
The Derryfield School’s Lyceum
2108 River Road
Manchester NH 03304 USA

Individual artists with international experiences will share images of their work and discuss the experience of living in a unique environment and creating work in situ in a foreign country. Directors of International programs will introduce their programs and philosophic goals.

Moderator:

Mary Sherman is the Director of TransCultural Exchange, an organization dedicated to promoting international art and the understanding of world cultures. Besides her work as an advocate of international creative dialogue, Mary Sherman is an artist and critic. She has participated in residencies in Romania, China, Korea, Chicago and was recently a guest artist at PROGR in Bern, Switzerland. Ms Sherman was an Artist in Residence of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, Cambridge MA.

Panelists:

Laura Baring-Gould, sculptor/installation artist. With extensive travel and work experience in various international settings (Mexico, Ireland, Southeast Asia), Baring-Gould received a 2008 Fulbright grant for artistic investigations in bronze and bamboo in Thailand. From 2006 - 2010 Baring-Gould lived and worked in Thailand creating public art commissions. Her presentation will focus on observations of how art and art-making are differently practiced and culturally valued, and the opportunities present in meaningful global interaction.

Sculptor Rosalyn Driscoll just completed a summer artist's residency at Space, a program supported by Dartington Hall Trust, in Devon, UK. Her sculptures explore the sense of touch and the experience of the body. Driscoll’s engagement with touch and perception has led to her participating worldwide at conferences for neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, engineers, philosophers, designers, art historians, artists, and people working with disabilities. Her work has been exhibited in the US, Europe and Japan. Ms. Driscoll has received awards from the New England Foundation for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico.

Robert Markey is a painter, sculptor and multimedia artist. He has been traveling to Brazil and Cambodia for a number of years to work with disadvantaged kids creating mosaic murals. He is committed to purposeful community arts investment.

Batu Siharulidze, Associate Professor at BU and Director of the Graduate Sculpture program. He has a long resume of international residencies in China, India, Turkey, Great Britain, USA, the Netherlands and Georgia.

Kiki Thompson has exhibited in New Zealand, Switzerland, New York, California and London. Ms. Thompson is Co-founder of the Verbier 3-D Sculpture Park Residency and was a participating artist in its first edition in 2011. She lives and works in Verbier, Switzerland.

John Weidman is the Director of the Andres Institute of Art (the site of an annual International Stone Symposia) as well as Director of the Nashua NH Sculpture Symposium. Besides his responsibilities as a Symposia Director, John is an internationally known sculptor who has participated in two or more international residencies/symposia annually for over a decade.

Event Hosts:

Donna Dodson graduated cum laude from Wellesley College in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts. Since 2000, Dodson has been honored with solo shows nationwide for her wood sculptures. Dodson enjoys public speaking, and has been a guest speaker in conferences, panels and forums at museums and universities in North America . She is a member of the Wellesley College Friends of Art and She won a George Sugarman Foundation Grant in 2007. In 2011 she participated in the Verbier 3D Foundation's Artist Residency and Sculpture Park in the Swiss Alps where she created monumental outdoor sculpture.

Andy Moerlein has an extensive resume of public art works. His work has been shown in museums, sculpture gardens, and galleries from Alaska to New York. In 2011 he participated in the Verbier 3D foundation's Artist Residency and Sculpture Park in the Swiss Alps.

Mr. Moerlein has been an arts advocate, educator, and professional juror for over 30 years. He has been a teacher and gallery director at the Derryfield School in Manchester NH for 15 years. Moerlein holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MFA from Cornell University. He lives in Bow, NH.

A summary by Donna Dodson from the International Art Residencies and Symposia panel discussion

Mary Sherman set the stage with the history of US residencies. They were designed to promote national agendas in contrast to what they have become, a forum for raising awareness of being a citizen in the world. She gained the perspective of being one among many and an awareness of how other nationalities have conversations with and about Americans. It changed her knowledge of art history to be a part of it in a global sense versus a national sense.

Batu made the point that sharing tools and learning new things from his peers was the part of the symposia that he looked forward to the most. As a teacher, he is energized from the experience of participating in symposia with peers from all over the world and building life long friendships. He also noted the importance of flattening the hierarchy of teacher/student through travel, exchange and sharing. These values are fundamental to his art making practice.

Donna Dodson went to Switzerland with the idea that she wanted to make a pregnant stork figure. The piece was developed in conversation with Kiki Thompson, a resident of Verbier, to celebrate the recent baby boom in town. She planned to use her vocabulary on a larger scale, but in a site specific way to the Alps. The piece changed in conversation with Paul Goodwin, curator to Tate Britain, who challenged her to take a bold risk with the placement of the piece, and not face it to the tourists, but perch it on the precipice of the valley, about to take wing.

Robert Markey described his public art and mural work in Brazil and Cambodia. As an external agent to a community, he is able to re-shape the relationships of street youth to police, and to demonstrate their value to the community. He teaches mural making and drawing skills, and in the process gets a community excited about art. By working internationally, he is able to reach a broader audience through his artwork than through temporary or gallery exhibits, and his art can have an impact beyond his local community in Mass. He brings back a global awareness to his studio practice, for example human trafficking, which is the subject of his recent work.

Roz Driscoll responded to the shape of the rivers, trees, and Greek architecture to create site specific work in residence in England at the Crypt Gallery. She described the process of leaving behind her studio, tools and materials, and making a creative leap, or taking an artistic risk she needed to in order to grow in her work. She brought nothing but she had everything with her, i.e. her experiences, knowledge and collaborative relationships to make new artwork.

John Weidman said as a director of an international symposium he wants artists to come empty, to experience the place, and to create from the heart. He doesn’t want artists to come with a proposal or pre-conceived notion of a piece. In his own work, he often re-visits narratives or themes, but crafts his work in site specific materials, referencing the past, present, future.

Kiki Thompson emphasized three points, Art Culture and Education. 3D foundation brought in a curator at the beginning and the end of the residency to shape the dialogue and conversation. They offered classes to the children in the community to de-mystify the art making process. They brought the artists to Art Basel which pushed her to make a creative leap with her piece, Samsara, or life cycle. She chose to make it black b/c she was responding to the black pieces at the fair the most. Life cycle celebrates birth and death, as a parallel to the seasons of nature.

For Andy Moerlein going to Switzerland and being in the Alps was like coming home to the mountains of Alaska. The people who loved the mountains loved his work the most. For Andy, there was a sharing of himself through his art and an understanding by the residents of Verbier that took place and transcended language. Art bridged the communication gap where meaning and an exchange of value, took place, he gave them art, and they gave him their appreciation.

Laura Baring-Gould described her experiences in Thailand. It changed her perspective of globalization where the stereotype was cheap goods are made in a poor country and consumed by a rich country. As an artist, a maker, and a story teller, Laura is using art to teach Americans about their history, and the Thai people are helping her with their casting techniques, ancient traditions, spiritual practices. They became real to one another, beyond the stereotypes of rich Americans who point at what they want done to working peers in the studio and poor Thai people lacking modern technology to people who are rich in the knowledge of their history, and who have the connectedness of art and culture as the fabric of their lives.

We heard people say that the dialogue would empower the young people in the audience to try out their own ideas in the world. We hope our experiences would encourage the students to take advantage of opportunities to travel abroad and learn from their experiences by reflection and peer dialogue. All of the presenters shared an idea that they wanted to put into place with the help of other people and resources in the community. That’s how we make things happen.


Thank you very much to our EVENT Hosts and SPONSORS:
The Derryfield School & Swissnex Consulate of Switzerland

In conjunction with this Panel Discussion will be an exhibit: HIGH ALTITUDE SCULPTURE - A RESIDENCY in the Lyceum Gallery. Artists will present photographs, drawings, prints, paintings, writings and maquettes from the 1st Annual Verbier 3D Foundation Residency in the Swiss Alps.

For more information visit http://aristsresidenciesandsymposia.blogspot.com/

Update: Swissnex, the Boston Consulate of Switzerland, posted a write up of the panel discussion by Donna Dodson on their blog with photos from the event by Andreas Rufer and a video recap by Andy Moerlein.