ABOUT THE ARTIST

Arizona artist Virginia Dotson was raised in a family of musicians. Though she chose not to pursue studies in music, the complex of harmonies and rhythms integral to music are nonetheless present in her own work.  “About the influence of music on my work, certain music seems to activate my spatial thinking and visualizing. String quartets are especially good – the interplay among the different instruments seems spatial.” If music is one of Dotson’s muses, the landscape of the American Southwest, its geography and light, is another.

 “I am intrigued by the features of the Southwestern landscape, and what they reveal about the past: traces of the sea which once covered the land… chronological arrangements of rock layers in many colors… changing compositions of light and shadow… and the cross-bedding of lines left in the sandstone by ancient winds. The layered patterns change over time as wind and water shape the surfaces.

“My laminated wood vessels are an expression of these landscape images. I shape the layered wood to reveal compositions of patterns which I change as I work, and which change again with the observer’s perspective.”

ABOUT THE WORK

The spare beauty of a Dotson piece is the result of a complicated process of visualization and construction. Dotson’s pieces begin with a sketch and a band saw. She cuts lengths of wood to various thicknesses, then carefully arranges them, combining woods of different color and grain in precise order. These are glued and clamped, creating a block. The block is then re-cut and re-glued to create arrangements of color and pattern within the laminate. The block is mounted on the lathe at a specific angle and turned. The turning process opens the pattern to view. Then, through selective removal of sections of laminate, she creates negative space within the form. The appearance of a Dotson piece, elegant, quiet and spare, barely suggests the complexity of its creation.

PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI

Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC

Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington,DC

Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia, PA