New Work for a New Year

Gallery Ehva
74 Shank Painter Rd
Provincetown, MA 02657
Telephone 508 487-0011

Adam Coughlin, for the Hippo Press of New Hampshire covered this series in a recent piece...

Technology shrinks art: Boston sculptor Donna Dodson is used to creating sculptures that are one to four feet tall and made of traditional materials like wood and stone. But when an opportunity came to turn some of her work into jewelry, she needed to branch out. That is when she visited CADD Edge. Dodson said when she brought her sculpture to the Londonderry facility it was scanned in 3-D using a hand-held laser device, where it was then translated into a digital file on the computer. From the computer it was printed on a 3-D printer (this technology was developed at MIT), which made it ¼ scale. But this is no paper image. These prints are fabricated out of gypsum, sand and an adhesive. The final sculptures feel like plastic and Dodson has sold some to collectors. “Using this technology really allows an artist to play with the size of the work,” Dodson said. “I can make my sculptures either really big or really small.” Dodson said the technology isn’t really new but it isn’t mainstream yet. And while she will stick with her traditional sculpting practices, she does think it is neat.

Images, Top to Bottom: Elephant Princesses, 1" and 1/2" bronzes in collaboration with Knight&Hammer, Elephant Princess, 6" rapid prototype/3D print, Rhino, 2" tall bronze in collaboration with Knight&Hammer, Rhino, 6" rapid prototype/3D print. Copyright 2010