A Mentor

Burning House, Night, with Fireman, 2007
oil on linen
46 x 64 inches

                         
        Recently I was selected to be part of a show at the Prince Street Gallery in New York, and it was a strange confluence of events that got me there. Last year there was a retrospective of the work of Lois Dodd at the Portland Museum of Art. I missed the show but went in the fall, to see the city, the museum and a bit of Maine. In the museum was the painting above, in the same room with other Maine and New England artists, some of whom Dodd has had a close association with over the years. 

(Concurrently with the Prince Street show Dodd will be giving a talk. 

She is also showing through early March, at  The Alexandre Gallery.) 

      The "Mainers" as I think of them, are artists I knew of, growing up. I studied with Neil Welliver for a semester at U. of P. Unfortunately, at that time, Welliver, Katz, Porter, Barnet, the Mainers I knew about seemed to be outsiders to what was contemporary. Minimalist and conceptual work occupied most of my attention. I didn't know about Dodd at all. She was never featured in the magazines or shows I paid attention to. Last year, the burning house picture popped up on Facebook and I followed its lead.

Self Portrait in Green Window      1971       53 x 36

     This self portrait, at the Portland Museum, is a terrific painting; large enough to put you into a number of spaces all at once. It's totally recognizable and very puzzling at the same time. The paint is quite flat and matte but also transparent in areas it needs to be. As a painter, I particularly appreciate the subtlety of the interior color changes, juxtaposed to the brightness of the outdoor light on the building. Bold move. Also, I love how the composition sits on the rectangle. It's a perfect match to the distortion of her reflection. Her other paintings of windows and frames have similar unsettling qualities that let you in, and hide at the same time. 

After Rain   1972   24 x 18

View through Elliot's Shack Looking South  1971  53 x 36

    The burning house image at the top of the blog was one of the first paintings I saw of Lois Dodd's. It comes across as both idiosyncratic and very honest. The View, above, is another that rang a bell. I knew there was something in my own image file that matched this experience. Below is a photo I doctored a number of years ago and thought about painting, but never did. The green in my photo is unchanged from the original shot. It's a New England spring green that you see in many of Dodd's works as well other Maine plein air painters. My photo is a window cropped from a garden shack in western Mass.

     

     When match ups occur like this you believe they are omens or messages from your muse. So when I ran into the call for submissions for the show, curated by Lois Dodd, I answered.

    Most artists, myself included, spend a lot of time in uncertainty about how they paint, what they paint and eventually if it leaves the studio, how it will be received and perceived. Thankfully, though those concerns are still there for me, they are not as primary. I am focused on feeding my idiosyncratic muse. I am grateful, as an as adult, to find mentorship in the example of a strong, honest soul with a very keen eye.

 

Thank you Lois Dodd, I look forward to meeting you.