VALDOSTA — Passion is the key to Irene Dodd’s art.
Passion lives in the brushstrokes on her canvases.
Passion fuels the energy that keeps her painting for decades.
From the late 1960s until her retirement as a Valdosta State University art professor in the early 2000s, Dodd rose at 4 a.m. nearly each workday so she could paint before teaching her classes.
She doesn’t have to rise that early in retirement but she still paints. And she teaches non-denominational Bible classes at her house. She said she loves doing both things.
“I’m inspired by teaching Bible classes,” she said. “And it inspires my painting. Then when I’m painting I’m inspired to teach. I gain inspiration from both of them.”
Viewers can see the results of Dodd’s artistic inspiration with her latest exhibit opening Monday, Jan. 14, in Josette’s Gallery at the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts.
The exhibit includes 37 paintings, she said. The majority of the paintings were created in the past few years. Though some are older works. Mostly acrylics. Some oils. A watercolor here, there.
“I pick pieces I like for a show even if they don’t match the theme,” she said.
Two pieces that likely won’t match the theme are works from her NASA series inspired by a visit to Cape Canaveral several years ago. The show will include an oil of Skylab and a watercolor of Apollo 17.
About a year ago, the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum accepted “We Have Lift Off,” another Apollo 17 painting from her NASA series. Drs. Dennis and Patricia Marks had purchased the piece several years ago and later sent it to the Smithsonian for possible inclusion in the national collection, Dodd said.
The majority of the show includes more recent paintings of villages, landscapes, waterfalls, and wildlife in the Arctic and Antarctic.
A sneak peek at some of the new paintings reveals a looser style for her current projects. Frenetic and kinetic canvases filled with bold shapes and colors.
The canvases also allow her to draw within the paintings.
“I like to draw,” Dodd said. “A lot of artists don’t like to draw but I do.”
She said an artist must always seek new ways to paint, new styles to convey images.
“You’ve got to grow,” she said. “I can’t imagine doing the same things I’ve already done.”
As she said in an artistic statement for a past exhibit: “It’s never finished. If you painted the perfect painting, why continue? There are times to continue with a certain work and a time to stop, but the painting is never absolutely finished. New experiences, past experiences, your attitude on a given day, they are all reflected and each painting is only a fragment representing a larger statement.”
Painting and being an artist is always a work in progress.
She has been an artistic work in progress almost since birth.
Irene Dodd is the daughter of famed artist Lamar Dodd, who founded the University of Georgia art program.
She has headlined nearly 100 solo exhibits, ranging from Valdosta shows to exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the High Museum of Atlanta, the University of Georgia, etc.
She taught at Valdosta State as an art faculty member from 1967 through 2002.
So, the painting is never finished. Never.
Painting may change; it may become something else; one canvas is completed, then another and another, but the painting never ends.
Not for an artist, she said.
Not for Irene Dodd.
Though being retired from the VSU art faculty means she can paint when she wants.
Which means she rarely ever rises at 4 a.m. to paint any more.
“Only if I want to,” Dodd said, “and I haven’t wanted to in quite a long time.”
Dodd’s art, along with the 2019 Drawproject and David Boyd’s art, will be on exhibit starting with a free, public reception 5-7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 14, Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts, 527 N. Patterson St. The exhibits run through Feb. 22. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; closed Sundays and Mondays (with the exception of scheduled receptions). Admission: Free. More information: Call (229) 247-2787; or visit turnercenter.org. Author Roberta George will also sign her book, “The Day’s Heat.”