Friday, March 18, 2016

Creative Finds: A Mixed Media Event - Dara Dodson

My mom hosted a small mixed media show for our friends last weekend featuring six artists who sell their work. I asked permission to share their work and links to their online presence. 

Dara Dodson
Website: coming soon!

Highlights from her artist bio: Dara is currently working on a series of "Scenes of St. Augustine" of local architecture and historic sites. She says, "I realized I wanted to be an artist when I 'painted' my first mural in crayons on my bedroom wall at the age of 5. It took hours to clean it off and I cried the entire time, thinking I was destroying a 'masterpiece.'" She continues to study under two well-known artists and has taken several workshops under one of them. She is a member of the St. Augustine Art Association because she loves art and hopes to continue for an eternity!



I am also now a collector of her art! These two Florida scenes capture exactly some of the things I've come to love about Florida. 

#1 thing I love about Florida: the clouds. Oh, the clouds here. The land is flat, but the vaporscape is magnificent! Florida is called the sunshine state. I would think southwestern states like Arizona or New Mexico could claim that being desert states. But, after living here nearly two years, I've learned that we usually have sunshine every day. And we can have rain every day. The winter is the dryer season, the summer is the rainy season. But, even with rain and storms every day, there is also sunshine every day. There are breaks of sunshine in between the storm clouds. It's being able to see that breathtaking slice of clouds up to tens of thousands of feet up into the air that make the heavenly tableau so stunning.

When an artist can capture what how I see the clouds in a painting, I'm very drawn to their work, as I'm drawn to Dara's work. 



#2 thing I love about Florida - the light. This is often tightly wrapped up with the clouds. There is something special about the light, usually as a result of rain or sunsets, sometimes both. Dara pinned this aspect of Florida down in the perfect picture of a lonely mangrove in the keys at sunset. 


She just started her Instagram account and is working on her website. Please follow her Instagram to watch her work progress.

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