DONNA DODSON: December 2016

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Winter News

At the end of year, it is a time to reflect- to look back and also to look ahead...

In brief, 2016 was a great year for my studio practice. I had four solo shows: one of which was my first solo museum show at the New Bedford Art Museum. In addition, I participated in three museum shows in Michigan, Maryland and The Netherlands. One of my public art projects became the subject of a controversy that went viral and spawned several petitions, a town proclamation, a welcome home parade and a traveling pop-up show that raised over $1000 to help breast cancer patients and their caregivers. At the end of the day, Seagull Cinderella was named the Unsung Hero by Kristen Pacheco and the People of New Bedford. And last but not least, one of my sculptures stood proudly through one of the most difficult and historic elections in modern history: Madam President, A Monument to the First Woman President of the United States and to the Dream that Every Girl Can Become the President of the USA.

The Myth Makers (Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein) also had a great year. In April, we built The Wildwood Phoenix in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In May, we moved The Avian Avatars, our national traveling art project, from Muskegon Michigan to New Orleans, Louisiana for a two year loan. In June we built The Dance, a pair of Sandhill Cranes at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. And in October we built The Mighty Merganser at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland. Thank you to all of the generous sponsors, donors and funders of our public art projects. We are so lucky to do this work and to connect with individuals and communities through art.

On a more personal note, I lost a hero of mine, my mentor and friend Joseph Wheelwright (1948-2016). He was a great artist, a family man and one of the founding members of the Boston Sculptors Gallery.

Coming up in 2017: we will be publishing new catalogs for myself, Andy Moerlein and the Myth Makers. If you would like to receive one in the mail, please send me your mailing address. Also coming up in 2017: Only from Maynard, Jan 18th-Feb 25th at Artspace Maynard: a group show featuring the artists in my new hometown, Love/Lust, Feb 8th-26th at the Boston Sculptors Gallery, a members group show and Valentine's inspired fundraiser, 31 Women, March 3rd-31st, a group show at the James Library & Center for the Arts in Norwell in honor of Women's History Month and The Forest Through the Trees, April 18th-May 27th at 6 Bridges Gallery in Maynard, a three person show with nature photographs by Brent Mathison and wood sculptures by Andy Moerlein and I.

Jan. 20-Feb. 5, 2016 "Mermaids," New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford MA

Feb 24-March 25, 2016 “Zodiac: Donna Dodson,” The St. Botolph Club, Boston MA

July 10-30, 2016 "Avian Heroines," Colo Colo Gallery, New Bedford MA

Sept 7-Oct 9, 2016 "Donna Dodson: Zodiac," Boston Sculptors Gallery, Boston MA

Nov 19, 2016-Feb 26, 2017 "Avian Inspirations: Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein" Academy Art Museum, Easton MD.

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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, December 13, 2016

Winter News