DONNA DODSON: August 2011

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

HIGH ALTITUDE SCULPTURE - A RESIDENCY

HIGH ALTITUDE SCULPTURE - A RESIDENCY
3D Foundation, Verbier Switzerland
September 6th - October 15th.
Artists Reception Friday September 23rd 5:30- 6:30.

Manchester - Derryfield art teacher and sculptor Andy Moerlein from Bow, NH, and Donna Dodson, a sculptor and frequent collaborator from Boston, MA have recently completed a Sculpture Park Residency in Verbier, Switzerland. HIGH ALTITUDE SCULPTURE - A RESIDENCY is an exhibit of water colors, drawings, photos of their work as well as images of the work produced by the 7 artists in residence in Switzerland. For five weeks, (May 21 - June 25, 2011) a roster of emerging and critically acclaimed Swiss, British and American artists were invited to create a museum without walls in the high Alps overlooking Verbier Switzerland. Verbier is a world class destination for skiing, snow boarding, and alpine hiking and is the home of the Verbier Classical Music Festival. The artists participating in the residency include Gregory Coates, Musa Hixson, Timothy Holmes, Zak Ove and Kiki Thompson. Will Ryman, Andre Raboud, Edouard Faro, Etienne Krahenbuhl, Nathalie Delhaye and Josette Taramarcaz also loaned monumental sculptures to the first high altitude sculpture park exhibition.

The creative challenge Dodson, Moerlein, and the other artists addressed was suggested by Paul Goodwin, Curator to Tate Britain, “New Monumentalism: art, nature and community.” Using views of the mountains where the sculpture park is located as a creative departure point, the residency was designed to be an incubator for ideas and creativity amongst the artists. The purpose of the residency is to create an international contemporary art dialogue between the artists and the local community. Over a five week working residency the artists shared their work in public talks, taught their methods and creative approaches to local children, and built a substantial permanent sculpture.

In conjunction with this exhibit there will be a panel discussion on Saturday October 15th, 2011, 2-4pm in The Derryfield School’s Lyceum:

International Art Residencies and Symposia - A Panel Discussion
at The Derryfield School 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. An internationally recognized artist/curator will facilitate a conversation on art making in a cross-cultural/site specific context.

Update: A brief overview of Verbier 3-D Sculpture Park Residency 2011 on video.

Images: Upended, a Ghost Print, steel, hand made stones by Andy Moerlein
Baby Bringer, 12 ft tall, styroffoam, cement, paint by Donna Dodson

Friday, August 26, 2011

Sculpturefest 2011

Opening: Saturday, September 3, 4pm - 7pm
Bring your own picnic

FEATURED ARTISTS THIS YEAR:

Wendy Klemperer and Roger Goldenberg

SCULPTURE FEST 2011
AT PROSPER ROAD LOCATION THE THEME IS "SACRED LAND," AN INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION WITH WORKS BY JOHN BIELING, SETH CALLANDER, DAVID COLTON, CHARLET DAVENPORT, CHARLET EGBERT, SAL FARLOW, HERB FERRIS, JOSEPH FICHTER, DIMITRI GERAKARIS, ROGER GOLDENBERG, BRUCE HATHAWAY, ANDREW HELLMUND, BARBARA KAUFMAN, WENDY KLEMPERER, DANIEL LADD, ROBERT MARKEY, JAY MEAD, ANDY MOERLEIN, TRACY PENDLETONN, HECTOR SANTOS, MARGARET SHEEHAN, VALORIE SHEEHAN, SUZI SULLIVAN, PHIL THORNE, JAMES IRVING WESTERMAN, JOSH WINER, KENNETH WOODHEAD

ADDITIONAL ARTISTS WILL BE ADDED AS THEY RESPOND

AT THE KING FARM, A YOUNG GROUP OF "ARTIST/CURATORS" ARE INVITING NEW ARTISTS TO PARTICIPATE ON THE THEME OF FARMS: CHARLET DAVENPORT, PETER DAVENPORT, DONNA DODSON, DIMITRI GERAKARIS, BRUCE HATHAWAY,WENDY KLEMPERER, MAXWELL HEIGES, LELA KEEN JAACKS, MICHAEL NEDELL, JUSTIN O'ROURKE, LI SHEN, JOHN IRVING WESTERMAN, KENNETH WOODHEAD

509 Prosper Road, Woodstock, VT.

Director Charlet Davenport has worked as an artist in Vermont since 1963. Currently her work in ceramic sculpture is influenced by many years of acting as Director of Sculpture Fest. Initially her ourdoor art installations were created on fibre glass mesh and installed in public spaces (St. Gaudens Historic National Park, The Rotunda at Dartmouth College Hopkins Center, the Vermont Carving Studio and Sculpture Center, the bank of the Hoosic River on Williams College Campus, Slater Mill, Pawtucket, RI, the TW Wood Art Center and a variety of other public and semi-public spaces.)

Peter Davenport, Co-Director of Sculpture Fest, is the one-man landscape force. Along with his duties as curator of the exhibition he aids artists in installing work, clearing sites, creating the signage, keeping everything clear for visitors as well as caring for the grounds throughout the exhibition time.

Both Davenports agree that land belongs to all of us and welcome the guests who come to Sculpture Fest each year.

Image: Elephant Oracle, 8ft tall, styrofoam & cement, 2010 by Donna Dodson
Photo Credit: Charlet & Peter Davenport

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Flower of Fire

Photo credit: Sarah Odrakiewicz

Waterfire
Saturday-August-13th-2011
9:25p - On the Confluence
@ Steeple St Bridge between memorial Blvd and Canal St
Providence, Rhode Island

A fire sculpture of a flower by artists Donna Dodson & Andy Moerlein will be set alight on the confluence downstream from the Steeple Street Bridge at 9:25pm during WaterFire Providence on Saturday, August 13th 2011. The artists are looking to the heavens for inspiration this year. Images of the recent Rosebud of a Reflection Nebula that circulated on the internet for Valentine’s Day planted a seed in the mind of the artists making the connection that chemistry is color, energy is matter, flame and water are fluid in the mind’s eye. A rosebud seems like the perfect symbol of WaterFire: romantic, lovely and passionate. Barnaby Evans is the artistic Director of this unique spectacle that has been taking place since 1997. Cathryn Griffith captured the entire lighting on video.

To see the Phoenix these artists created last year, click on this Youtube video.

Update: Erin Smithers got a nice shot of us lighting our Flower of Fire on video.

Photo credit: John Lincourt

Monday, August 1, 2011

Creatures

CREATURES
Produced by Connecticut Art Connection
(Formerly GALLERY 46)

MAC650 Gallery
650 Main Street, Middletown, CT 06457
August 6 - 28, 2011

Marcella Anna Stasa
Donna Dodson
Kim Mikenis
Jennifer Eli French
James McGann
Amanda M Brown & Kevin Sweet

Opening Reception:
Fri, Aug 12, 6-9pm

Live Musical Performance by MeLinda Dalton and Russ Quinn of The Ninas

For gallery hours or more information call 860-729-5806

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Artist Statement

‘My artwork celebrates the mystical relationship between human beings and the animal kingdom. Because there were no icons of women in the church that I grew up in, my vision is to create them. Through hybrid female-animal forms that I sculpt in wood, I flesh out sensuality, sexuality and soul with a well-proportioned figurative vocabulary. The natural grain of the wood interacts with the form and shape of my sculptures in a descriptive way, suggesting nostrils, and nipples or garments and fabric textures. I often stylize each piece to enhance the girl, woman, princess, queen or goddess within. The mouths, or in some cases beaks, are closed symbolizing the mysteries they embody. These figures are sculpted in sizes ranging from the intimate to the monumental. I use color in both subtle and bold ways to activate each piece. My inspiration comes from ancient iconography and mythological imagery.’

About

Donna Dodson has been carving images out of wood for nearly 20 years. Her sculptures explore feminine beauty and evoke humor and playfulness but also grace, power and emotional strength. Her unique vision responds to the relation of animals to the human spirit that have existed since ancient times. Her figures are almost always female and range in size from the intimate to the monumental.

Dodson’s pre-med studies and her passion for Egyptian art led her to study wood and stone sculpture. African sculptures and Native American totems also influence her work.

She uses logs of osage orange wood from her grandfather’s farm in Illinois, and ash, cherry, locust and maple from New England.

Dodson has worked in a series using an elephant headed goddess to explore female figureheads in positions of power. Recently, Dodson created large scale outdoor pieces, engaging in a public dialogue about her work. The site became a more prevalent theme. Today, Dodson has returned to creating statement pieces such as a cardinal goddess for the women of the Catholic Church who aspire to be ordained and Madam President- a monument to the first female president of the USA.

Bio

Donna Dodson is an American sculptor who has exhibited her artwork around the world. Dodson has completed successful residencies in Verbier Switzerland, Cusco Peru, Keelung Taiwan and Ringkoebing Denmark. Donna is currently a Scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center and a Fellow at the St Botolph Club in Boston. Dodson’s recent show, “Sheroes” at the Boston Sculptors Gallery was met with critical acclaim. Donna was a 2022 Fulbright US Scholar at Q21/MuseumsQuartier in Vienna Austria working as an artist in residence with her host institution Tricky Women/Tricky Realities, the world’s only animation festival for women. Dodson has won grants from the Puffin Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, the New Hampshire Guild of Woodworkers and the George Sugarman Foundation. Her work is in the permanent collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame in St Louis Missouri, the Provincetown Art Museum, the Art Complex Museum and the Fuller Craft Museum in Massachusetts, The Noyes Art Museum in New Jersey and the Davistown Museum in Maine. Donna's work has been reviewed in the Boston Globe, Sculpture Magazine, The Daily Beast, Hyperallergic and Artnet. She is currently represented by the Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Boston and Los Angeles. She is a former member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery. Dodson is a graduate of Wellesley College. Donna is a freelance writer whose articles in newspapers, magazines and blogs demonstrate the economic impact and global reach of the Boston arts sector. Her recent paper, “What do we call courageous women” was presented at the Society for Classical Studies annual meeting in 2022 and was published in Queering the Amazons a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies.

Inspirations

"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."

-Leonard Cohen

"... I think one's art goes only as far and as deep as [one's] love goes..."

-Andrew Wyeth

"art is valuable because it challenges, inspires, and enables us to see ourselves in much more interesting ways"
-Mickey Cartin

" the thing that I had to do was to ... work super hard in the hope that someday it would pay off. And in using that term I don't mean necessarily money, but just the fact that I would have more depth and dimension both as a human being and as an artist."
-Ed Paschke

“Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.”
-Steve Jobs

"...remember that collecting art is an act of love. It isn’t about what you pay for a work, or how rich (or not) you become when you one day sell it, but the depth of your enjoyment in the time you live with it."
-Abigail R. Esman

"[Patronage] is a gift, in the form of money, in exchange for [my] gift, in the form of music."

-Amanda Palmer

"Art is the crucial interface between the imagination and reality, the thing that makes life deeper and broader than what it might be without such insight."

-Todd Levin

"If they hadn't told me I was ugly, I would never have searched for my beauty."

-Gabourey Sidibe

"Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be."

-Clementine Paddleford

Great artists “must be shaken by the naked truths that will not be comforted. This divine discontent, this disequilibrium, this state of inner tension is the source of artistic energy.”

-Humphrey Trevelyan

"Life should be lived so vividly and intensely that thoughts of another life or of a longer life are not necessary."

-Marjory Stoneman Douglas

“When people say that poetry is a luxury, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough language - and that is what poetry is.” Jeannette Winterson

Artistic Process

When I start a piece of work I need to evoke such a strong feeling about each piece that I can dare to listen to the piece, to make mistakes - to just create. It is the emotional investment in the act of creation that crystallizes the work for me.

Sometimes the idea or concept comes first, and I imagine what the piece will be when completed. More often I work from intuition. Once completed I see the intentions behind the piece, or the desire from which it is born. Artists who inspire me include Jessica Stockholder and Katharina Fritsch. Stockholder uses color as a transformational visual device, changing the way we see form. Fritsch creates sculptures of sacred figures that become pop-icons through her use of color. In the same way I work with various kinds and grains of wood accented by color.

My artwork is about self expression, autobiography, and self redemption. Each sculpture is independent and heroic, but each is connected to the body of my total work. Each is made greater and honored by its association with those that have preceded it, but keeps its own sacred identity. Each reflects my realization that I am a self-made woman.

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