Artist Profile Series: Patrick Dodd
Patrick Dodd was born in France, and has been living and painting in Ann Arbor for seven years. His latest work is a series of eighty remarkable "faces," some of which were shown at Main Street News last year. Currently his work can be seen at Zeitgeist Gallery, 2661 Michigan Avenue, Detroit.
Lou Hillman: Do you go back to France very often?
Patrick Dodd: Well, I go back whenever I have some money, I would say once a year. I have relatives there and sometimes Jacques (Karamanoukian) is there, too. Two or three times we have met in Paris - we go to coffee and we talk; we meet other people and go to museums and galleries. In France, it is different, there's a different feeling. Ann Arbor is a nice, little, secure city for people who have a good job, but after a little while you forget about culture, about meeting people, because you just do that kind of routine thing - and l'm totally against that. But it is difficult , especially when you don't have the same philosophy or thoughts as most of the people. You see them living a certain way which is not at all your way, it is very difficult to try to conform - and I don't want to conform, l've gone too far to back up now.
Hillman: In America, certain things are "off-limits" for us to read, to develop thoughts in terms of the value of life and its relation to work, and how you have to evaluate work and life together. I think in France, people do that much better. They're trying to get full-time employment down to 32 hours per week! That's unheard of, here.
Dodd: " . . .and some other countries, like Japan, are the same as the U.S., even worse. People just kill themselves by working, that's the only thing they know. I mean, at least in Europe, in France, we understand that we should also have time with our family, and spend time just doing things that we enjoy doing - reading, going to the museum, going to coffee - and not only working. When I look at people here, for example, they work all week long, summer and winter, and on the weekends too. They never stop! That's why so many people just break down and have to go see a psychiatrist or a counselor. That's a very bad lifestyle, I think.
Hillman: But if you don't do that too, they think something's wrong with you. So automatically you're on the outside, you're "other."
Dodd: That's true, but I like to be an outsider anyway. To be outside, to be not like everybody. Because my difference makes me richer inside. Somehow I feel like l'm lucky to have my own vision and my own thoughts and not be like everybody. To be different in society requires a lot of strength. It's definitely more difficult to go through this type of life than it is to conform to the norm. It makes you become a stronger human being. You're able to see things differently and to step back.
Hillman: When I see the faces in your paintings, they're like friends - they're outside, too. They populate the territory to the outside.
Dodd: That's right. When you look at the people in my paintings, you cannot really relate to anything you see, from the mainstream perspective. When people see my paintings, they're surprised because they don't know what to say, they don't know what to think. Sometimes it can be very interesting to watch people's faces and reactions to my work.
Hillman: In 1993 and 1994, you were doing larger canvases. Why did you decide to focus on faces in paintings which are about fifteen inches square?
Dodd: Well, it has something to do with the material available to me, and also the idea of having to move from this country or to a different state. At least I can carry my work with me. When it comes to the big canvasses I have here - most of those are 28" by 48" - I know I cannot carry them and I will have to leave them behind . So I switched to the smaller size with the idea of maybe having to move. I thought at first, I wouldn't be able to do it because I have a problem with space when it comes to small sizes. But I just decided to try it while I was in Paris a year and a half ago, and I think the result was pretty good. So when I came back here after that, I just worked and did something like 80 faces. I just felt inspired and let it flow. Whatever came to my mind, I would just do head after head - it was good. That's why today, I don't mind switching to small pieces.
Hillman: I was thinking that there could be a "politics of the face," - how your face is like your I.D. card. When your boss or your spouse comes to look at you, you better have a nice face for them, otherwise there's a problem. You have to be identifiable or recognizable, or something' s wrong. So it seems like you've created, if I can use the expression in a good way, an "army" of faces which don't take the dominant norm.
Dodd: Yeah, and some of those faces definitely are happy, you can see a big smile. Some others, of course, look like somehow they got surprised. Each time you can read or interpret the face in your own way. That's why I don't put any title on my faces or on my artwork in general, because I want people to be able to interpret the painting however they want. That's what art should be about, you know? Because if you put a title, you know right in the beginning you're leading people and their imagination stays there. l'm very glad to hear different comments and see that people can interpret the art in different ways. And that's what is important. Because if everybody sees things in the same way, it might be a little bit boring.