DONNA DODSON: May 2013

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Catalog Launch for CONVERGENCE: BOSTON SCULPTORS GALLERY EXHIBITS AT THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PLAZA

The Boston Sculptors

The Boston Sculptors Gallery and The First Church of Christ, Scientist are pleased to announce an outdoor exhibition of monumental, site-specific artworks. In a convergence of imagination and civic pride, over two dozen art installations from Boston Sculptors Gallery members will be displayed on The Christian Science Plaza through Oct 31, 2013. For more information visit Convergenceexhibit.blogspot.com.

The Space Within, Buds by Gillian Christy

Join us for the catalog launch on Thursday, June 6, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. There will be plaza tours of the exhibition at 2:15 and 4:15p with the artists. Meet at the entrance to The Mary Baker Eddy Library, 200 Mass Ave and walk around the sculptures that are installed on the plaza. The tour is free and open to the public. Jen Mergel Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the MFA and Anita Walker, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, will make remarks at 3pm. Location: Mary Baker Eddy Library Bookstore.

Bag Lunch by Laura Evans

Each sculpture will speak to its architectural surroundings, activate the site that inspired it, and create a unique destination for the Boston community to see contemporary art. Following on the heels of the newly renovated Contemporary Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts and as a celebration of the newly designated statewide Fenway Cultural District, this exhibition carries forth the vision to draw attention to visual art of the moment and promote its prominent place in the life of the city.

Nave by Rosalyn Driscoll

We invite the public to enter, look, think, hope, dream, and be a part of the experience. Participating artists include: Gillian Christy, Murray Dewart, Donna Dodson, Rosalyn Driscoll,Laura Evans, Sally S. Fine, Chris Frost, Peter DeCamp Haines, Jim Henderson, Michelle Lougee,Nancy Winship Milliken, Andy Moerlein, Eric Sealine, George Sherwood, Margaret Swan, Marilu Swett, Leslie Wilcox, Joseph Wheelwright, and Andy Zimmermann.

Minoan Reflection by Sally Fine

Boston Sculptors Gallery was founded in 1992 by 18 prominent Boston-area artists to present and promote innovative, challenging sculpture and installations. It is the only sculptors’ organization in the country that maintains its own exhibition space. In twenty years the cooperative has held over 227 art shows and supported the work of 58 sculptors with work in 48 U.S. states and 36 foreign countries.

Grotto by Christopher Frost

Gallery members have received numerous honors including 81 residencies, 315 awards or fellowships, and 134 grants. Members have taught in 70 settings, generated 169 permanent public art works and 308 temporary public artworks, and are included in 1,100 private and public collections. Boston Sculptors Gallery articulates, challenges, and promotes the role of sculpture in the public sphere, in communities, and in the lives of individuals.

Inner Eagle by Peter DeCamp Haines

The Christian Science Plaza is a 14-acre pedestrian refuge amid the busy traffic patterns of Boston’s urban environment and attracts thousands of visitors each year from all over the world.

Three Bronze Trees by Jim Henderson

In the heart of the Plaza sits The Original Mother Church, built in 1894, and its domed extension, built in 1906.

Christian Science Coral by Michelle Lougee

The Plaza also includes an arboretum of linden, oak, and honey locust trees, a 686-foot-long reflecting pool, the children’s fountain, and the world-famous Mapparium™, the most popular exhibit at The Mary Baker Eddy Library.

Arabesque by Eric Sealine

The Plaza has been influenced over the past two centuries by several architects, including Chester Lindsay Churchill in the 1930s and the firm of I.M. Pei & Partners and Araldo A. Cossutta, Associated Architects, in the 1970s and is a designated Boston Landmarks Property.

The Lighthouse by Nancy Winship Milliken

The Fenway Cultural District, the first Boston-based Massachusetts-wide Cultural District, is comprised of more than 40 cultural and academic institutions, community organizations and private residents and is managed by the Fenway Alliance, a consortium of 22 institutions.

Templum by Margaret Swan

The owner of the Christian Science Plaza, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, has always been active within the Boston community and was a founding member of The Fenway Alliance, the group responsible for the creation and organization of this cultural district.

Water form by Marilu Swett

VISITOR INFORMATION: The Christian Science Plaza is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Huntington Avenue, in Boston, MA.

Loving Stones by Joseph Wheelwright

Admission to this outdoor exhibition is free, and open to the public through October 31, 2013.

Sentinel by Leslie Wilcox

Exhibition catalogs will be available for purchase after June 6, 2013, from the shops at The Mary Baker Eddy Library, 200 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston.

Liminal Bloom by Andy Zimmermann

Save the following dates for more Convergence events in June:

Wave Cloud by George Sherwood

Saturday June 15th 11am "Kinetic and Monumental" Murray Dewart, Founding member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery, and George Sherwood, notable public artist, will lead a conversation on the plaza about the 20th anniversary of the Boston Sculptors Gallery, the changing landscape of public art in Boston and their role in shaping the future.

One Bright Morning by Murray Dewart

Friday June 21st 8pm "An Arty Night Out! A Solstice Event"Join Artists Andy Moerlein and Donna Dodson for a guided tour of Convergence on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, under a nearly full moon.

Tiger Mother by Donna Dodson

New Hampshire sculptor, Andy Moerlein will be joined by Boston artist, Donna Dodson for a romantic stroll in one of Boston's architectural treasures. Plan an early dinner in the city and join us for our walk.

Poised by The Myth Makers: Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein

Saturday, June 29th 11am "Art, Architecture and the Landscape- a Conversation" Judith Tolnick Champa, Editor in Chief of Art New England and Wyona Lynch-McWhite, Director of the Fruitlands Museum of Art in Harvard, Mass. will discuss the challenges of curating in an urban environment.

Impossible by Andy Moerlein

Monday, May 6, 2013

Art in Nature

Visit the sprawling Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Mass. and enjoy the second Art-in-Nature Sculpture Competition. Ten talented sculptors have brought their work to Fruitlands. Winners will be picked in October and will include one chosen by a panel of judges and one winner of a popular vote. Be sure to pick up your sculpture map at the admissions counter and hand in your ballot at the end of your visit! May 11 - November 3, 2013

Fruitlands Museum, http://www.fruitlands.org/

Opening Reception May 11th, 1pm

Sculptors will be on hand to discuss their work as we take a guided walk across campus to view the sculptures.

                                                                     
Featuring: Gillian Christy, Scott Cunningham, Peter Dellert, Donna Dodson, Alicia Dwyer, Liz Fletcher, Philip Marshall, Geoff Nelson, Buddy Quinn, Jim Sheehan

Image: Elephant Oracle, 2013, Styrofoam, cement, paint, 8ftx4ftx4ft by Donna Dodson

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.

Update: Chris Bergeron featured this piece in a glowing art review, 'Sculptors transform bucolic Fruitlands into a contemporary sculpture park' for the Metro West Daily News , June 2, 2013.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

'A Collection of Storks'

Stork Enthusiast Piet de Bakker visits Stroomhuis to present
'A Collection of Storks'

May 11th - June 9th 2013
Opening reception, May 11th at 3pm

Stroomhuis Neerijnen, http://www.stroomhuisneerijnen.nl
Center for art, culture and landscape of the Riverland

This exhibition will take place during the stork season, when there are many stork nests in the landscape in Neerijnen. The show includes Dutch art, comprising more than 60 works of about 30, mostly professional, Dutch artists, complemented by stork artworks from the collection of the Piet de Bakker and made available by the artists themselves.

The aim of the exhibition is to promote the work of Dutch artists, to bring attention to the beauty of the stork as a dweller in the river landscape and to raise awareness about the preservation and the expansion of its habitat.

The show includes Peter Vos, Hetty Heyster, Ellen Baptist, Renze Koenes, Robin d´Arcy Shillcock, Jan Grotenbreg, Marja Vleugel, Erik van Ommen, Dirk Moerbeek, Theo van Hoytema, Louis Kalff (the famous Philips logo) , Ton de Laat, Hans Andringa and Donna Dodson.

The exhibition runs from 11 to 17 hours (except Monday) daily. I will have one work of art in this show- a watercolor, called 'Red Feet.'

Piet de Bakker has organized three previous exhibitions about storks. The first one was in the summer of 2007 in the Public Library of The Hague, Haegsche Règâh. The second one was in 2009 in Malpartida de Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain during the XXth Semana de la Cigüeña (20th Storks Week) there, CrotorArte Holandés. The third and last time it was under the name: Holländische Klapperkunst from July 3rd to August 7th, 2011 in the Burg of the German town Storkow, near Berlin.

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.