DONNA DODSON: Sheroes

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Sheroes

Donna Dodson: Sheroes August 30 – October 1, 2023 @Boston Sculptors Gallery

Featuring special guests Trina Baker, K. Melchor Hall, Maya Rubio and Kledia Spiro

First Friday: Sept 1^st, 5 – 8:30pm. Special performance, In the Heels Of by Kledia Spiro at 6pm

Artist’s Reception: Saturday, September 9, 3 – 5pm, with artist talks at 4pm

Roundtable Discussion Heroine Herstories and Contemporary Visions: Sun, Sept 10 at 2pm

With Donna Dodson, Maya Rubio and Kledia Spiro. Co-moderated by Dr. Clareese Hill and Dr. Ali Terndrup. Join us for this virtual event on Zoom

As 2023 ushered in a new set of woes for women including threats to health care, human rights and gender equality, artist Dodson’s response was to create an army of Sheroes for her seventh solo show at Boston Sculptors Gallery. Her most recent woodcarvings are inspired by real life heroines – Hua Mulan, Tomyris, Beatrice Cenci and Caterina Sforza.

Dodson chose to collaborate with special guests Trina Baker, K. Melchor Hall, Maya Rubio and Kledia Spiro because of their shared commitment to social justice. Dodson, Baker, Hall, Rubio and Spiro are united in their quest to create a new vision of women’s empowerment. Hall responds to Dodson’s sculptures and themes of superheroines and vulnerability with her prose poetry transformed into a digital soundtrack to accompany Maya Rubio’s video, which highlights the process of creating collaborative animations with Trina Baker. While Hall’s poems address the gendered contrasts of strength and weakness, youthfulness and aging, as well as the protection of the self and others in relationships, Baker’s animations present contemporary visions of superheroines that challenge the stereotypical narratives of female action figures.

In Spiro’s most recent body of work, she considers the inheritance and upholding of her family’s legacy—one with significant achievements—as a weighty responsibility. Being a woman adds another layer of complexity, considering the historical challenges of prescribed gender roles. Yet, the support and contributions of unseen heroines, like Spiro’s mother and grandmother, play a crucial role in making such legacies possible. Her family's legacy in Albania, rooted in the remarkable work of her grandfather and father, became her foundation. Supported by the efforts of her mother and grandmother, who defied societal norms, Spiro is empowered to leave her own mark, creating a new reality, and continuing their journey. In her performance Oozing, she stands on the shoulders of these unseen heroes and heroines, carrying forward their aspirations and breaking barriers. Their labor and sacrifices enable her to build her own legacy, step by step. She embraces the weight, leaving traces of progress as she goes, constantly evolving and opening up new possibilities for the future.

Trina Baker currently Chairs the Animation Department at Lesley Art + Design. Her paintings, drawings, and artist books have shown nationally and internationally in galleries and corporate collections. Baker’s animations have received numerous awards including a Pixie, honoring outstanding work in Motion Graphics, Visual Effects and Animation, as well as two International CINDY (Cinema in Industry) awards.

Donna Dodson is a Resident Scholar at Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research Center, a Fulbright US Scholar, a Fellow at the St. Botolph Club and a member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery. She has exhibited her work, received favorable reviews and won grants locally, nationally and internationally. Dodson’s work is in numerous private and public collections locally, nationally and internationally. Her well-known Seagull Cinderella sculpture attracts international media attention.

K. Melchor Quick Hall, PhD. is a Black feminist scholar-activist crossing disciplinary and national borders. She is a Resident Scholar at Brandeis University. Dr. Hall is the author of Naming a Transnational Black Feminist Framework: Writing in Darkness, and co-editor of Mapping Gendered Ecologies: Engaging with and beyond Ecowomanism and Ecofeminism.

Maya Rubio is an independent curator and editor at Boston Art Review. Her recent curatorial projects include What’s the Secret? at Gallery 263 and M'Kenzy Cannon: Please Let Me In at Boston Center for the Arts. Rubio has also worked on several exhibitions at Emerson College, where she studied the business of creative enterprises and art history.

Kledia Spiro creates videos, performances, installations, and paintings. Born in Albania, Kledia was a member of an Olympic weightlifting team. An interdisciplinary, artist she uses weightlifting as a symbol of survival, empowerment, celebration, and as a vehicle for discussing women’s roles in society, immigration, and times of war. Spiro has exhibited internationally and nationally, most notably at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Queens Museum, New York City; SAIC Sullivan Galleries, Chicago; Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire; and the ProArts Gallery in Oakland, CA. Spiro was the Keynote Speaker at the Centennial New England Museum Association Conference. She was selected as a TEDx speaker and performer for The Pursuit of Creativity.

Sheroes Descriptions:

Beatrice Cenci for Harriet Hosmer, 31” tall, black walnut, 2023. Photo credit: Brian Wilson

Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908) was a renowned stone sculptor, ahead of her time. She grew up in Watertown, Mass. but lived in Rome most of her life. She often shied away from popular subjects in favor of more challenging ones. One of her major pieces is called Beatrice Cenci, for the Italian nobleman who, with her siblings and one of his wives, killed her abusive father, was tortured, and eventually beheaded. Beatrice Cenci has become a symbol to the people of Rome of resistance against the arrogant aristocracy. It is rumored that every year on the night before the anniversary of her death, she comes back to the St. Angelo Bridge where she was executed, carrying her severed head.

Blood Thirsty, 42” tall, cherry, enamel, 2023. Photo credit: Brian Wilson

Tomyris was the legendary Turkish Queen who killed Cyrus the Great. The story goes that she refused his hand in marriage, and he took revenge on her by ambushing and killing her husband and son. She went to war against him and out maneuvered him on the battlefield. She ordered her soldiers to bring her his severed head, which she dunked in a cask of blood, saying "Now you can have your fill of blood" since he was so bloodthirsty. My sculpture is a python headed woman, with a tattoo that says "No" in Persian. She wears the severed head of her enemy as a trophy around her neck like a piece of jewelry. Tomyris is a popular subject in art history. But there are not many contemporary visions of her.

Every Mother is a Warrior, 56” tall, black oak, enamel 2021. Photo credit: Brian Wilson

This commissioned piece has not been exhibited before, but the owners want it to be seen. My friend lost his mother recently. He told me that her favorite bird was the red winged blackbird. He cut down this tree to build a new addition on his family’s home where this sculpture now resides. I took one look at the log and saw two figures- a large maternal figure and a small girl child. I added painted wing patterns in the signature colors of the red winged blackbird- red, yellow and black. He has since shared with me that his mother was a warrior who battled mental health issues all her life. His kids call the sculpture "Grandma."

Tomboy, 42” tall, honey locust, oil stain, enamel, 2023. Photo Credit: Brian Wilson

Hua Mulan was the Chinese warrior who is said to have dutifully taken her father's place in the army to preserve her family's honor. There is a famous quote where she says, “The male and the female rabbit have physical differences but when they are running side by side, you cannot tell them apart.” So I created a rabbit headed female figure who is standing in shoes obviously too large for her, covering her breasts, and she has a tattoo meant to symbolize being a tom boy.

The Madwoman of Chess or Autonomous Was a Woman, 37” tall, honey locust 2023. Photo credit: Brian Wilson

Caterina Sforza was an Italian noblewoman who lived life on her own terms. When one of her enemies surrounded her castle and threatened to kill her children she called their bluff by lifting her skirts, baring her genitals and saying "Go ahead, I have the means to make more!" She earned the nickname The Tigress of Forli. My sculpture is a full bodied figure with her mouth open, symbolizing a woman who is comfortable in her own skin, not subject to the male gaze.

Update: Cate McQuaid reviewd my show and Barbara Broughel's show "Requiem Portraits" at Krakow Witkin Gallery on Sept 24, 2023, Witchy women: Witch hunts, Sheroes, and the blessings of age.

James Foritano reviewed my show and Alison Croney Moses's show "The Habits Of Reframing" at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery on Sept 28, 2023 for Artscope Magazine, TWO GALLERIES, TWO TELLINGS, ONE HISTORY: THE WOODEN MARVELS OF DONNA DODSON AND ALISON CRONEY MOSES

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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, October 31, 2023

Sheroes

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