DONNA DODSON: April 2014

Monday, April 14, 2014

April/May News

I am very pleased to announce that I will be participating in the 2014 Biennial Sculpture Invitational at the Krasl Art Center in St. Joseph Michigan this year. My piece, the Seagull Cinderella will be on view from June 25, 2014- September 2015. If you're in the area, please join us for the opening reception on Friday April 25th, from 6p-10p.

Seagull Cinderella, 2012-2013, styrofoam, cement, acrylic, 8ftx4ftx4ft by Donna Dodson

Seagull Cinderella is as common as the birds we see at the beach. Yet she is uncommon, like Marilla in Anne of Green Gables, corseted and bound by the sweet virtues of her character. Her full length gown is alive with neon daisies and flower power! This piece is Celebrating a Common sea bird as the American mythic princess, Cinderella.

Also, on view at the Krasl Art Center, in the Galleries from April 25, 2014- June 22, 2014, is a show of Biennial maquettes, models and drawings. I will be exhibiting a wood sculpture and two small colored pencil drawings of the Seagull Cinderella.

Seagull Cinderella, 15" tall, wood paint by Donna Dodson Photo Credit: Cliff Pfeiffer

Save the Date for ArtWeek Boston: April 25-May 4, 2014 and these two upcoming events: Inside the Studio with the Boston Sculptors Gallery. During ArtWeek Boston, Boston Sculptors Gallery will present two pecha kucha style events that will offer rapid fire presentations rich with images and stories to illustrate how each sculptor develops ideas, responds to site and community, and engages audiences. The artists take you behind the scenes for a sneak peak into the how and why of their studio practice.

Tuesday April 29th, 6p-8p
Discussion topic- The Great Outdoors

Speaker Lineup: Caroline Bagenal, Rosalyn Driscoll, Mags Harries, Andy Moerlein, Nancy Selvage, Nora Valdez, Hannah Verlin

Saturday May 3rd 3p-5p

Discussion topic- Indoor Sites

Speaker Lineup: Liz Alexander, Donna Dodson, Susan Lyman, Eric Sealine, Liz Shepherd, Julia Shepley, Jessica Straus

The Boston Sculptors Gallery members offer the audience an unusual experience you can't get in commercial art gallery and museum shows. Moderated by Ron Mallis, of BostonAPP/Lab, each event includes a lively Q&A. Free and open to the public of all ages, light refreshments included. The events will take place at the Boston Society of Architects, 290 Congress St, Suite 200, Boston. To RSVP for either one or both of these events, please send an email to reception@architects.org and specify the date(s) of the event(s) you wish to attend.

Flock Together, installation, 2012 at the Boston Sculptors Gallery

Also in April, The International Sculpture Center will honor Judy Pfaff and Ursula Von Rydingsvard with Lifetime Achievement awards at a Gala event on April 30th at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. I will be participating in the International Sculpture Center's Art Benefit Sale, at the 2014 Lifetime Award Gala. The sale will Include works for sale by world-renowned artists, emerging artists, and past and current ISC Lifetime Achievement Award winners. A special online preview will commence on April 16th through April 30th where patrons can be the first to browse through newly donated artworks. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the ISC website. Here's a sneak peek of my piece:

Pregnant Kangaroo, 6" bronze on limestone base. Limited edition, 2/10

Coming up in May... Silent Scream: Personality Type and Body Language, my third solo show at the Boston Sculptors Gallery. It will open May 21st and be on view through June 22nd. I will be exhibiting concurrently with Kim Bernard.

The Mighty Hippo, detail, 50" tall, walnut 2014

On May 3rd, Rice Polak Gallery opens for the season with a group show of the artists they represent. I am proud to announce that I will be showing with this esteemed gallery in Provincetown for the first time this summer. Stay tuned for more details on my upcoming feature show that opens August 15th with Sean Thomas and Patrick Webb. Here's a teaser...

Ms. Pea Hen, 2012, 29" tall, birch wood & paint

Drole and yet a nobody. An undistinguished madam trapped inside a very distinguished body. Singularly peculiar. Regal, rampant and rebellious, like the statue of Liberty's sister. Someone who we know is someone but we've never heard of her.

Update: Nancy Egol Nikkal, posted a great review of our booth at the Fountain Art Fair, on her blog, The Art of Collage, and she included a lengthy spotlight on my work, in her piece "About 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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Monday, April 14, 2014

April/May News