Daniel
Dodson - Subterrania
Foreword
by John Howard Swanson
 “Subterrania,”
Daniel Dodson’s latest series of paintings, offers a sublime
departure from what one typically finds in contemporary art. His
paintings of subterranean musings and imagined geological incidents
lead to a place of structural harmony and emotional eloquence, enhanced
by the precise chromatic grading of transparent colors layered over
shimmering scored metals.
Dodson’s
paintings are instantly captivating. Some of this is due to the
glorious motion and limitless depth in the sheet metals he has scored
into what appear to be optical hallucinations; although the paintings
are physically flat, the viewer gets the sense of immense sculptural
dimension. As the viewer moves before a painting, the image is constantly
reborn, then constantly vanishing, in the panorama of endless shifts
of light.
While
the metallic movement contributes to the gleam and dance of the
background, it’s Dodson’s use of transparency that gives
life to his ideas. Goethe wrote “...transparent colors are
limitless in their lightening and darkening, and fire and water
can be seen as their height and depth ...the relationship of transparent
color to light is an infinite delight and naturally ignites these
colors in its depth and elevates them to a brilliant clarity that
allows every tone to shine through...this intense fire surges around
the viewer in a thousand transformations.”
Dodson
controls the color juxtapositions so that their combination elicits
an emotional, spiritual, and psychological response. Even the air
surrounding the painting seems infused with energized light.
He
sets up a diversity of ideas: “Just Before Sleep” is
a lyrical approach to illuminate a mythical atmosphere: wavering
biomorphic figurations, madly musical in appearance, seem to undulate
across the surface to create a poetic reality. The sequence of these
figures generates visual rhythm, dictates the action of the eyes,
and allows entrance into this active milieu of visual impulses during
those seconds between wakefulness and sleep.
“Outer
Latitudes” infers an orbital view of a planet first taking
shape. It’s as if we’re under a cloud, soaring over
strange terrain and golden seas, still feral and infused with an
explosive dynamic. It suggests the vast and slow rise and fall of
land masses, the span of the sea from its shores to the space of
the sky.
To
achieve a sense of timelessness, Dodson deliberately keeps his imagery
vague; it’s his goal that each painting’s visionary
language will transcend consensus analysis and give the viewer new
access to mysterious and unexpected worlds.
Mr.
Swanson is the published author of
Wai Ming: Chinese Master, 21 California
Artists, and Confessions of an Art Dealer
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