I was very pleased to see a story by Tom Hall, curator and journalist for ArtSWFL.com about a recent preview held at Robb and Stuckey International, in Fort Myers, FL for the upcoming Arts for Act Auction on November 8th 2014. The review features a critique of my Marilyn Monroe painting at Robb & Stuckey.
» read the article BREAKING SWFL ART NEWS
Excerpt of Hall’s Review Of The Marilyn Monroe Painting at Robb & Stuckey
Martha Dodd is one of this year’s ’4 Artists of ACT’ (09-10-14)
Each year for the past quarter of a century, Abuse Counseling and Treatment, Inc. has conducted a fine art auction in order to raise funds to support its operations. It also selects a small coterie of artists to set the tone and spearhead the effort to draw the public to the associated gala, which is being held this year on November 8 in the Harborside Event Center. This year, the group consists of four artists, David Acevedo, Todd Babb, Patty Sole and Martha Dodd.
Dodd is a realist whose genres include equestrian and wildlife art, murals and portraiture. A member of the Portrait and Figure Painters Society of SWFL, Martha loves painting portraits and is focusing her energies on establishing a reputation as a noted portrait artist. Her technique is straightforward. She strives to reveal what is most beautiful about her subject. Equally important to her is conveying to the viewer a sense of “being there.”
Recognizing the Hollywood theme of this year’s gala (“lights, camera, action”), Dodd has rendered a stunning portrait of a voluptuous Marilyn Monroe for the auction and gala. At a meet-the-artists event last Saturday morning at Robb & Stucky, Dodd acknowledged that it is not an easy undertaking to paint an insightful painting from a photograph of someone long dead. But Dodd pulls off the feat with equanimity. However, it is not Monroe’s ample cleavage or full red lips that entice the viewer. It’s the actress’ eyes that draw us in.
Through those eyes, Dodd hauntingly reveals to the viewer the actress’ private loneliness and vulnerability. Through those chocolate brown eyes, Dodd hints at the child who spent her childhood in Los Angeles orphanages, her days filled with chores and no play. In her depiction, Dodd’s Marilyn stares vacantly past the viewer, perhaps remembering her school days as Norma Jean Mortensen, where she kept to herself, smiled rarely and wiled away her days lost in a world of dreams. And that’s the brilliance of Dodd’s portrayal. She doesn’t render another plastic painting of a wax figure Sex Siren. No, Dodd understands, whether cognitively or intuitively, that Marilyn Monroe’s appeal lay not in her cultivated beauty or glam figure, but in her air of sadness, schoolgirl innocence and childlike naivety – a lethal combination that made men want to protect her even as the plotted ways to seduce her.
Dodd appears destined to be an artist. Her father was a physician, her mother an artist, and thanks to mom, she grew up in Ohio surrounded by an impressive art library that included large volumes of works by Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. Martha was swept away by the enormous murals these masters created. So inspired, she loved to draw and took every art class that was available to her during the school year, and even some summer courses at the College of Wooster, Ohio.
But Martha loved horses even more than she loved art, and instead of pursuing a degree and career in art, she attended the Agricultural Technical Institute majoring in Horse Management for a year before transferring to Ohio State University, where she earned her BS in Animal Science in 1983. She originally intended to become a veterinarian, but instead became a physical therapist for race horses, working for the Bill Haughton Stable in New York, New Jersey, Kentucky and Florida for 5 years.
While working at the track, Martha found time to draw the horses around her from life, and it was not long before co-workers and horse owners were commissioning her to do portraits of their horses. She had the benefit of visiting the art museums in New York City, and meeting fine equine artist William Orr, who shared with her some tips on painting.
Bill Haughton was killed in a harness racing accident in the summer of 1986, and Martha decided not long after that to pursue another career. She found a job working for an art studio in Florida, where she began painting full time. She went out on her own 5 years later.
Martha has found inspiration all around her in Florida, and discovered that she could not only paint horses, but birds, fish and humans as well. To her delight, she discovered a huge demand for murals, and that has been the mainstay of her work for many years.
“I guess because of my background and my love of the history of art, I recognize the importance of art in the home to create a mood, and enhance the beauty of the surroundings,” Dodd proclaims. “It not only has a role of adding interest, but it must live in harmony with its surroundings and the people who live there. There are naturally subjects that I gravitate toward, and my scientific schooling makes me tend to be very representational as an artist. I love challenges, and I love to have fun with my art as well. It has come to define me as a person – I can’t imagine life without it.”
Although she’s been perfecting her craft full-time since 1987, she continues to study and learn. She regularly attends workshops from nationally-acclaimed artists, including Douglas Flynt and Steven Assael. And as is true with many experienced artists, Martha is not interested in pursuing awards. The great demand for her work is testament to her accomplishments as a successful artist.
Dodd’s work can be found in homes and businesses all over South Florida, and she has worked with some of the best interior designers in the business. Her work has been published many times in various magazines, including Florida Design, Naples Illustrated, Gulf Shore Magazine, and the N Magazine.
You can preview Dodd’s paintings and all the work that will be included in both the live and silent auctions inside the Rush Library on the Lee campus of Florida SouthWestern State College on October 10. The live auction and gala takes place on Saturday, November 8, at the Harborside Event Center. The red carpet event begins at 5:00 p.m.
Abuse Counselling & Treatment (ACT) provides safe shelter and counselling services to victims of domestic violence (and their children), survivors of sexual assault (and their families) and the new and temporarily homeless. ACT also provides a 24-hour crisis hotline, forensic examinations, advocacy, education, information and referrals. The agency was incorporated in 1978 and serves Lee, Hendry and Glades counties. ACT’s annual fine art auction and gala serves as a major source of funding.
