The art of Pamela Dodds is many—many!—things. What I want to write about in this blog is what her art is to me, as a lesbian, as a survivor, and as a playwright who focuses on both of those identities.
"Showing" from the Family Secrets series Dodds’ art tells secrets. In fact, she has a whole series of paintings titled “Family Secrets.” For example “Showing.” When a child is pregnant. Notice the loving attention to the details of a girl’s bedroom… teddy bear, rabbit-eared bedroom slippers, ticket stub in the mirror. Notice how Dodds puts us in her position. The painting is the reflection in the mirror. She makes us be that pregnant teenager. Wow. The pregnancy is only going to become an issue when it begins to show, hence the title. In the realm of family secrets, it is the showing—the making visible—that is framed as the betrayal.
"Dressing" from the Boston series
Dodds trades in silences as well as secrets. As a playwright, I am not allowed to spend much time in silences… but when I can find a way to do it, I always take advantage. Why? Because there is power in those moments when one cannot find the words, or when the speaking of them is taboo. There is tension and power, and Dodds exploits both.
For me, as a lesbian, the silences between a couple are especially poignant. Nothing personifies the power of this silence better than Dodds’ painting “Dressing.” In this painting, there is an inter-racial couple who appear to be dressing up for an evening. In other words, getting ready to show off their coupledom in public. The white woman, still in her slip, is helping her partner on with her dress. The painting has a stillness for me that feels as if the moment has been frozen in amber. Now, perhaps this is a projection on my part, but when I look at this picture, I feel that there is a nearly unbearable tension between the women, a tension arising from what cannot be spoken. I look at the picture and I wonder if there is infidelity, or just boredom. Or has the racism and patriarchal values of the outside world become internalized, undermining and overwhelming their attempts to be intimate? All of the above… or none?
For me, as a lesbian, the silences between a couple are especially poignant. Nothing personifies the power of this silence better than Dodds’ painting “Dressing.” In this painting, there is an inter-racial couple who appear to be dressing up for an evening. In other words, getting ready to show off their coupledom in public. The white woman, still in her slip, is helping her partner on with her dress. The painting has a stillness for me that feels as if the moment has been frozen in amber. Now, perhaps this is a projection on my part, but when I look at this picture, I feel that there is a nearly unbearable tension between the women, a tension arising from what cannot be spoken. I look at the picture and I wonder if there is infidelity, or just boredom. Or has the racism and patriarchal values of the outside world become internalized, undermining and overwhelming their attempts to be intimate? All of the above… or none?
IV from "Night House"
Perhaps, because I am a story-teller, I found Dodds’ drawings especially compelling. These are presented in a series titled “Night House.” The series are then subdivided into four separate series, each of which tells a story: “The Visit,” “The Bound Child,” “Guardian,” and “Waiting Up.” You can tell just by the titles that these are also fraught with silence and secrets.
In these drawings there is a young woman and a child, or perhaps the child was the young woman. The visit triggers a trip to the basement, and then we meet the “Bound Child.” This is followed by the presence of a benign female guardian who watches by the bed. And then we see the young woman waiting up… and the loop of drawings circles back to the visit. Again, it may be the playwright in me, but I find story in this series. It’s a repeating story, the story of recovery. The sudden glimpse or intuition (aka “the visit”), which sets off the search for one’s own secrets, which leads to discovery of abuse/trauma. This discovery reveals the what was missing: the guardian. Or maybe, it leads to the correction of this absence. The arrival of the guardian lays the foundation of security which can open the survivor to the possibility of that initiating impulse personified in the visit. Rinse and repeat. This is my life. And someone, miraculously has drawn it.
In these drawings there is a young woman and a child, or perhaps the child was the young woman. The visit triggers a trip to the basement, and then we meet the “Bound Child.” This is followed by the presence of a benign female guardian who watches by the bed. And then we see the young woman waiting up… and the loop of drawings circles back to the visit. Again, it may be the playwright in me, but I find story in this series. It’s a repeating story, the story of recovery. The sudden glimpse or intuition (aka “the visit”), which sets off the search for one’s own secrets, which leads to discovery of abuse/trauma. This discovery reveals the what was missing: the guardian. Or maybe, it leads to the correction of this absence. The arrival of the guardian lays the foundation of security which can open the survivor to the possibility of that initiating impulse personified in the visit. Rinse and repeat. This is my life. And someone, miraculously has drawn it.
"Memory's Witness" This theme of recovery is also present in her series of relief prints titled “Memory’s Witness.” In this series, there are two fantastical female figures. Instead of feet, they are rooted in the ground. This is the source of their despair and also their hope. They are earth-bound, real, part of nature. There are helicopters that interrupt their Edenic existence. And then the bombs begin to fall. There is an aftermath of trauma and grief. And then… regeneration. I like that this series, all about roots, is woodcuts.
"V" in the Tether Series
Lesbians… She has two series, “Ebb” and “Tether,” that appear to be explorations of lesbian relationships breaking up and broken up. The bond between the women in “Tether” is an interesting one. Sometimes it is a support, other times it appears to be a hindrance or oppression. And sometimes, it’s difficult to tell which is which.
"Drift" from the Ebb series
And then there is “Ebb.” There is a “Flow” print, where the two women face each other in a floating limerance, and then the undertow, the drift, the riptide, the depths of separation. I can chose to return to “Flow” or experience the series as a linear breakup. Whichever I choose, I find it cathartic to see the pain of separating from a lover to graphically, and lovingly depicted. It is a healing work. I think all of Dodds’ art is healing. I think that’s her intention.
“Undertow” is a work-in-progress. This is a “a narrative suite of relief prints combining printed carved figures with printed natural woodgrain.” She has completed four of the proposed 9-12 prints. It seems to me she is taking some of her themes from “Ebb”and “Tether,” and realizing them in a different medium and in greater detail. For example, in “Undertow” the two women appear to be underwater. One of them appears to be reaching out to the other in a rescuing gesture, but the other is rejecting that gesture. The swirling patterns of the natural woodgrain are brilliantly realized representations of sky and sea, alive and impersonal, the perfect medium for her exploration of the figures.
Dodds has also done two book projects. As a writer, I found both of these fascinating. They brought to mind the words of author and activist Toni Cade Bambara: “I’m trying to break words open and get at the bones, deal with the symbols as if they were atoms. I’m trying to figure out not only how a word gains its meaning, but how it gains its power.”
The first book project is titled "Language for a Faltering Mind." The project was inspired by Dodds’ residency in Catalonia. In her words:
“As I grappled with the meanings of words, their nuance, their references, I was impressed with the power and political weight of language, and the significance of language as a touchstone of identity for the Catalonian people… In my contemplative walks, I happened upon the naturally formed bark fragments that fall from the trunk of the Plane (Platan) tree, ubiquitous in Spain. These unique forms struck me as hardly different from the letterforms that we collect and arrange into words to create meanings – meanings that can only be understood if one has the key of comprehension. I gathered, inked and printed these natural shapes, combining them in the manner of a potentially comprehensible language, as booklets and charts.”
Dodds has also done two book projects. As a writer, I found both of these fascinating. They brought to mind the words of author and activist Toni Cade Bambara: “I’m trying to break words open and get at the bones, deal with the symbols as if they were atoms. I’m trying to figure out not only how a word gains its meaning, but how it gains its power.”
The first book project is titled "Language for a Faltering Mind." The project was inspired by Dodds’ residency in Catalonia. In her words:
“As I grappled with the meanings of words, their nuance, their references, I was impressed with the power and political weight of language, and the significance of language as a touchstone of identity for the Catalonian people… In my contemplative walks, I happened upon the naturally formed bark fragments that fall from the trunk of the Plane (Platan) tree, ubiquitous in Spain. These unique forms struck me as hardly different from the letterforms that we collect and arrange into words to create meanings – meanings that can only be understood if one has the key of comprehension. I gathered, inked and printed these natural shapes, combining them in the manner of a potentially comprehensible language, as booklets and charts.”
That alone would have made a fascinating project, but Dodds combined it with a second experience:
“Coming home, I observe an aging relative who is losing her grasp of the English language, the only language she knows; and with it, the specificity of her relationships and human connections… Visiting her with notebook in hand, I gathered her utterances as I had the fragments of tree bark. I printed quotations of her collected words, and paired each one with a composition of printed bark fragments. The combination of the printed text with the printed tree bark, each with their spacings and layerings whether of meaning or form, represents for me, an alternative linguistic exchange, a continuing dialogue.”
“Coming home, I observe an aging relative who is losing her grasp of the English language, the only language she knows; and with it, the specificity of her relationships and human connections… Visiting her with notebook in hand, I gathered her utterances as I had the fragments of tree bark. I printed quotations of her collected words, and paired each one with a composition of printed bark fragments. The combination of the printed text with the printed tree bark, each with their spacings and layerings whether of meaning or form, represents for me, an alternative linguistic exchange, a continuing dialogue.”
"I Have a Feeling That I Want to Go Home" Her second book project, Chronique Analytique / Analytic Chronicle, is a collaboration with Québec printmaker Diane Fournier. It is an abecedary... or alphabet book. Pamela describes the concept:
"Each letter is represented by a French and English word of same or similar meaning. Diane and I wanted to make imagery about experience, ideas, and perspectives, so we chose nouns for concepts, qualities, and states of being - not things. To create the work, we each separately drew images in response to the chosen words in a spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness manner and later combined the images through serigraphy... The result is a single, layered, complex image to represent each word.
"Each letter is represented by a French and English word of same or similar meaning. Diane and I wanted to make imagery about experience, ideas, and perspectives, so we chose nouns for concepts, qualities, and states of being - not things. To create the work, we each separately drew images in response to the chosen words in a spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness manner and later combined the images through serigraphy... The result is a single, layered, complex image to represent each word.
O and P ("origin" and "possibility")
What I appreciate about Dodds’ work is that spends her time playing in the spaces in between.... in the silences, in the secrets, in the places where language is constructed and where it disintegrates. Her trauma narratives are not linear, but cyclical. She has an acceptance that communicates grace. My plays are tales of revenge and retribution. Her canvas is broader than mine. She chronicles a journey, where I am focused on the mapping and navigation.
I have a special appreciation for her work that deals with relationships between women. It reminds of the words of the lesbian poet Adrienne Rich:
“The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.”
Please visit Pamela Dodds' website, to see more of her art.
I have a special appreciation for her work that deals with relationships between women. It reminds of the words of the lesbian poet Adrienne Rich:
“The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.”
Please visit Pamela Dodds' website, to see more of her art.
Pamela Dodds working on "Undertow"
RSS Feed
