DONNA DODSON: June/July: Three New Exhibitions!

Sunday, May 31, 2015

June/July: Three New Exhibitions!

The Contemporary Art of Nature: Mammals

Francesca Anderson Fine Art, 56 Adams St, Lexington, Mass.

June 13th-July 12th 2015

Opening Reception Saturday June 13th, 3p-5p

Asian Elephant by Donna Dodson

"Ashley Rooney , a well-known Lexington resident, is the author of over 40 fascinating books. Come see paintings and sculptures of horses, cats, dogs, sheep, elephants, and much more from her most recent publication." I am proud to announce that I was invited to contribute the introduction to this beautiful, full-color international anthology of artists who work with animal imagery in their art.

Featuring the work of Sandra Blair, Resa Blatman, Jefffrey Briggs, Don Cadoret, Elli Crocker, Donna Dodson, Gay Freeborn, Ronnie Gould, Peter DeCamp Haines, Susan Hauser, Chery Hochberg, Susan Jamison, Wendy Klemperer, Morris Norvin, Shelley Reed, Amy Ross, & Lynnette Shelley.

Boston Sculptors in Concord

The Concord Art Association

June 18—August 12, 2015

Opening Reception: Thursday, June 18, 6—8pm

Joseph Wheelwright, Curator

Participating artists from the Boston Sculptors Gallery: Christopher Abrams, B. Amore, Amy Archambault, Gillian Christy, Murray Dewart, Donna Dodson, Rosalyn Driscoll, Laura Evans, Chris Frost, Peter Haines, David Lang, Susan Lyman, Michelle Lougee, Eric Sealine, Nancy Selvage, Julia Shepley, Jessica Straus, Dennis Svoronos, Margaret Swan, Marilu Swett, Nora Valdez, Joseph Wheelwright, Leslie Wilcox, Dan Wills, Andy Zimmermann.

Elephant Clown by Donna Dodson

Join us for our fascinating programming associated with this exhibit,
BOSTON SCULPTORS in Concord. MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Wednesday, June 24, 6:30—7:30pm
LECTURE: Nick Capasso, Director of the Fitchburg Art Museum
Understanding Modern and Contemporary Sculpture

Wednesday, July 8
DAY TOUR: Boston Sculptors Gallery at Chesterwood 2015
Chesterwood is the home, studio and gardens of Daniel Chester French, America's foremost public sculptor and first President of Concord Art's Board of Directors. Stay tuned, more to come soon!

The Chinese Zodiac: An Installation by Donna Dodson

Colo Colo Gallery July 12th-August 2nd 2015

Opening Reception Saturday July 18th, 5p-8p

Warrior Rabbit by Donna Dodson

Update: Don Wilkinson posted this well-researched and very thoughtful review "Sculpture is Counterpoint to Paintings" for South Coast Today, July 23, 2015. John Paul Stapleton posted this concise review on Artscope Magazine's online zine, July 24th, 2015, "Donna Dodson: The Chinese Zodiac Series & William Kendall paintings at Colo Colo Gallery"

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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 Resident Scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center and a Visual Art Fellow at the St Botolph Club in Boston. Dodson’s recent show, “The Amazons Among Us” 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 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 a member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery, the nation’s only sculpture cooperative that maintains its own gallery space. Dodson is a graduate of Wellesley College. She enjoys public speaking, and has been a guest speaker at conferences throughout North America. Donna is a freelance writer whose articles in newspapers, magazines and blogs demonstrate the economic impact and global reach of the arts sector. Her recent paper, “What do we call courageous women” was presented at the Society for Classical Studies annual meeting in 2022 and is pending publication in a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies, Queering the Amazons.

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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Sunday, May 31, 2015

June/July: Three New Exhibitions!

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