DONNA DODSON: Poetry on the Land

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Poetry on the Land

The exhibition POETRY ON THE LAND is Sculpture Fest’s offering to Bookstock’s weekend 'festival of words.'

This year the annual Sculpture Fest season begins early with an outdoor exhibit of site-specific work, sculpture installations, sound pieces and poetry displays at the Vermont Land Trust property at the King Farm on King Farm Road . On Saturday, July 28th from four to seven the community is invited to join artists and poets for the official opening of the Poet’s Trail. Naming the Poet’s trail is inspired by Martha Perkins' students of poetry at Woodstock Union High School who have studied poetry along the trails and in the fields and meadows of the farm during Spring term. Poems are posted along the trails, paths and hilltops of the farm offering a unique experience of walking on the land. In addition these creative students made a digital movie which is part of the POETRY ON THE LAND exhibition.

Twenty three artists are included in the outdoor exhibition. There are site specific installations, sound pieces, sculptures created from material found in the farm buildings and on the land as well as a mini retrospective and new video and sound project in the farm's old creamery by Dennis Grady. Grady is an artist who has been involved in Sculpture Fest for throughout its history. Examples of other visual art by Dennis will be displayed throughout the season in Davenport’s studio/gallery space at 509 Prosper Road.

The Vermont Land Trust invited Sculpture Fest directors Peter and Charlet Davenport onto the land three years ago. This is the third exhibition on the site offered to the community. Artists currently participating in the "Poetry on the Land" exhibition include Lynn Newcomb, Worcester, VT (selection of new and past work at both SF sites) Ethan Ames, Brooklyn, NY Gordon Auchinchloss, Hardwick, VT John Bieling, West Windsor, VT Seth Callendar, Woodstock, VT Charlet Davenport, Woodstock, VT (site specific installation) Peter Davenport, Woodstock, VT Murray Dewart, Brookline, MA Donna Dodson, Jamaica Plain, MA Herb Ferris, West Windsor, VT (work created from King Farm fallen tree) Dimitri Gerakaris, Canaan, NH Dennis Grady, Pomfret, VT (new video/sound installation and past work sited in new locations) Bruce Hathaway, Richmond, VT Andrew Hellmund, Massachusetts Henry Homeyer, Lebanon, NH Lela Keen Jaacks, Brownsville, VT (site specific installation) Barbara Kaufman, Woodstock, VT Wendy Klemperer, Brooklyn, NY Jay Mead, Hartland, VT ( site specific installtion) Jeffrey Porter, Tunbridge, VT Margaret Sheehan, Hanover, NH Li Shen, Thetford, VT Adrian Tans, Woodstock, VT Judith Taylor, Woodstock, VT Jamie Townsend, Springfield, VT (introducing a newcomer to sculpture fest) James Irving Westerman, Morrisville VT Kenneth Woodhead, Woodstock, VT.

The King Farm show has become an important part of the annual Sculpture Fest experience which traditionally begins on the Saturday of Labor Day week end. This year the opening at the Prosper Road location at the Davenport’s will add once again to the season of viewing art on the land when it opens on Saturday , September first with an exhibition titled “Living Art”. A special living sculpture by Bonnie Gale, nationally recognized living willow artist will be featured at that time. Meanwhile visitors are welcome to observe the changes and growth of the Bonnie Gale sculpture on the north side of 509 Prosper Road location. Both exhibitions will continue through foliage season. There is no admission charge , all are welcome dawn to dusk at both locations. For a list of artists, upcoming events, directions go to SCULPTUREFEST.ORG or call Charlet at 802 457 1178.

I will be exhibiting my sculpture, Elephant Oracle at the King Farm during Poetry on the Land.

The Elephant Oracle is the wise old one to whom we turn in times of confusion, doubt and indecision. The Elephant has a memory that never forgets. Perhaps it is a paradox that one who knows so much says so little. Yet, in its presence, we find the courage in ourselves to listen.

Image, courtesy of Sculpturefest: Elephant Oracle, 8 ft tall, styrofoam & cement, 2010 by Donna Dodson

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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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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Poetry on the Land

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