DONNA DODSON: May news- Four Upcoming Art Shows!

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

May news- Four Upcoming Art Shows!

Chesterwood Opens Daily for Season on May 23

2015 highlights include the exhibition “Boston Sculptors Gallery at Chesterwood 2015”,

Chesterwood, the former summer home, studio and gardens of Daniel Chester French, America’s foremost sculptor of public monuments, announces its 2015 schedule of exhibitions, programs, and events. Chesterwood will open the first three weekends in May for one-hour guided tours only of the studio and residence at 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., before opening daily for the season from Saturday, May 23 to Monday, Oct. 12 (Memorial Day Weekend through Columbus Day), from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Special Exhibition, May 23 to Oct. 12

“Boston Sculptors Gallery at Chesterwood 2015” features 24 contemporary sculptures by 25 sculptors, which were created specifically for and in response to sources of inspiration discovered at Chesterwood. The exhibition reflects the wide range of sculptural media and styles that represent the members of Boston Sculptors Gallery, which was founded in 1992 to present and promote innovative, challenging sculpture and installations. I will be exhibiting a contemporary presidential monument: Madam President is a conceptual interpretation, of the first woman president of the USA and homage to Daniel Chester French's Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

Madam President: A Monument to the First Female President of the USA and to the Dream that Every Girl Can Become The President of the USA by Donna Dodson, 13 ft tall, poplar wood, paint 2014 . Courtesy of GTI Properties, Mario Nicosia, V. Lessard & Sons and The Boston Sculptors Gallery.

Saturday Art Programs, June 6 through Sept. 12

Family-friendly art tours, demonstrations and workshops presented by Boston Sculptors Gallery from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free with admission.

Ancient Migration by Andy Moerlein

Join us on June 6th, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free with admission.

“A Walk in the Woods”. Explore outdoor sculptures in “Boston Sculptors Gallery at Chesterwood 2015” with The Myth Makers: Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein, whose individual, solo and collaborative works are in the exhibition. The Myth Makers are exhibiting a new work on site for this exhibition: Forest Grace, based on the iconic stance of the ruffed grouse.

Forest Grace by The Myth Makers

Save the Date: Opening reception on Saturday June 27th 2015 from 4p-7p. $10 members; $20 non-members.

About Chesterwood

Chesterwood, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is the summer home, studio and gardens of America’s foremost sculptor of public monuments, Daniel Chester French (1850-1931). French is best known for his sculptures of the Minute Man (1871-75) and the seated figure of Abraham Lincoln (1911-22) for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

Situated on 122 acres in the idyllic hamlet of Glendale near Stockbridge, Mass., the property and its buildings were donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation by French’s only child Margaret French Cresson (1889-1973). Chesterwood is recognized as both a National Historic Landmark and a Massachusetts Historic Landmark.

Admission

Adults, $17.50; seniors, $16.50; children ages 13 to 17, $8.75; children under 13, free; Chesterwood members, free; NTHP members, $8.75. Grounds-only admission: adults, $10; children ages 13 to 17, $5. Guided tours are available for groups of 10 or more with advance reservations only. For reservations, contact Lisa Reynolds at (413) 298-3579, x2034.

4 Williamsville Rd., Stockbridge, Mass. (413) 298-3579. www.chesterwood.org

Also Opening May 23rd... Seaport Art Walk- Destination New Bedford

Moby Dick, 8' tall, styrofoam, cement 2015

"NEW THIS SUMMER: The New Bedford working waterfront will be transformed with original sculpture created by local artists. Ten to twenty sculptures will be temporarily installed along MacArthur Blvd, the City and State piers, in the city’s Seaport Cultural District. Artists will create new work reflecting this year’s theme – “New Bedford Works,” encouraging unique interpretation of and connection with the past, present and future of New Bedford. Exhibition duration: May – September, 2015." The Exhibition is curated by Jessica Bregoli, Seaport Art Walk Coordinator. I will be exhibiting my sculpture Moby Dick, in honor of the whaling history of this city. "In the 19th Century New Bedford gained worldwide reputation as the greatest whaling port and the richest city per capita in the world. Portuguese and Cape Verdean immigrants formed the backbone of the whaling industry, on the wharves and on the high seas. Herman Melville shipped out aboard the whale ship, Acushnet, in 1841. His experiences inspired him to write “Moby-Dick”."

Please join us for two special events:
The artist reception on Thursday May 21st from 5p-7p, at Cork, 90 Front St., New Bedford
The outdoor reception on Saturday May 23rd, 5p-7p at Seastreak, 49 State Pier, New Bedford

New work at Blue Hollomon Gallery, 3555 Arctic Blvd., Anchorage, Alaska

The Happy Hippo, 20" tall, wood, paint 2014

Panda Bear, 16" tall, wood, paint 2010

Georgia Blue and Gina Hollomon run an exciting contemporary art gallery representing artists from Alaska and worldwide. Visit their Facebook page to keep up to date on their exhibitions and events. I recently shipped two new pieces, Happy Hippo and Panda Bear who I hear are greeting visitors at the gallery. Also on view, Honey Bear, Red Wing Blackbird, Tiger Frog, Walrus Mother.

New work at Rice Polak Gallery, 430 Commercial St., Provincetown, Massachusetts

Hippo Goddess, 21" tall, locust wood, 2013

Silver Fox, 25" tall, wood, pigment, enamel 2009

Marla Rice is the Director of Rice Polak Gallery- PROVINCETOWN’S PRIMARY VENUE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART. The gallery’s roster of artists includes Elli Crocker, Edward Del Rosario, Deb Goldstein, Julie Levesque, Anne Lilly, Dawn Southworth and many more. The gallery is open Sat/Sun 12-5p through Memorial Day, and then daily throughout the season. "In addition to ongoing group exhibitions the Rice Polak Gallery presents solo exhibitions where the work of mid-career and emerging artists are featured. The gallery looks forward to its continued participation in the vibrant culture of art fairs in Miami, New York, Boston and other prominent cities throughout the country."

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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, May 5, 2015

May news- Four Upcoming Art Shows!

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