Portfolio
Sara Dobbs
The Grasshopper : Iteration IV
Sara Dobbs
Acrylic paint, canvas, cotton, stuffing, and greyboard
9 x 12 x 6 ft
2019
The Grasshopper is an installation that explores creative leaps of faith. Each component of the collage can be reconfigured to create new compositions. The subject comes from Aesop's The Ant and the Grasshopper. Instead of preparing for the winter by gathering food, the grasshopper makes music. The changing compositions of the installation and the fractured ladder explore the ambiguity in the value judgment and final results of choosing creativity over practicality.
The Stork : Iteration II
Sara Dobbs
Acrylic paint, canvas, cotton, wire, and greyboard
6 x 6 x 5 ft
2019
An installation that explores the birth of creative inspiration by using the materiality of painting (canvas, paper, and paint) to make a collage that can be reconfigured into new compositions. It explores the duality of ecological relationships by looking at the life cycles of a wood stork and an alligator. The assumed roles of the animals are reversed with the stork, often associated with birth, as the predator and the alligator as the prey.
Metamorphosis : The Grasshopper & The Stork
Sara Dobbs
Acrylic paint, canvas, cotton, wire, and greyboard
Various dimensions
2019
While being displayed, the elements of The Grasshopper and The Stork were constantly moving and changing compositions. They began and ended their rotations side by side on the floor, as seen above.
Fish Ladder
Sara Dobbs
Acrylic paint, wood, wire, and rope
41 x 16 in
2019
Installed on a painted wall at Embassy Gallery (Edinburgh, Scotland). By looking at the waterways of the Pacific Northwest, Fish Ladder explores the power dynamics between ecosystems and societal structures. The imagery comes from the Bonneville Lock and Dam, downstream from The Bridge of the Gods in Oregon.
Fishing Trip
Sara Dobbs
Photograph of a QR code sticker attached to wooden plaque
2022
Fishing Trip is an interactive installation. It is a collection of short animations (GIFS) made from digitally edited pencil drawings linked to QR codes. I placed these QR codes near water to create a walking exhibition. Viewers could view each animation by using their phones to “catch” each “fish.
Catfished
Sara Dobbs
Scan of paper dolls, acrylic paint and paper
6 x 4 inches each
2021
Catfished is a project that explores the construction of societal identity through pattern and repetition. A catfish is a term for someone online who pretends to be someone they are not. The piece is composed of paper dolls (above) and a zine. The zine illustrates instructions on how to make (misleading) paper dolls. The paper dolls are made by following the instructions from the zine. These are some of the compositions that can be made to disguise the initial identity of the fish doll.
Blink
Sara Dobbs
GIF made from digitally edited pencil drawing (9 x 12 in)
2022.
Part of a series of graphite drawings that are linked to short animations (GIFS). They explore the repetition that forms social expectations, patterns, and bonds. Above is the digital version, with the swans slowly blinking. When displayed in a physical space, the original drawing is hung with a QR code.
Bow
Sara Dobbs
Pencil on paper
9 x 12 in
2022
Part of a series of graphite drawings that are linked to short animations (GIFS). The GIF attached to this drawing is located here. This series explores the repetition that forms social expectations, patterns, and bonds.
Cultivation Series: Motif, Pattern, and Instruction
Sara Dobbs
Hardcover books
8 x 10 in
2022
A series that shows my process through a collection of drawings from Wilbie Farm and other natural sources. Each book builds on the previous one: Pattern is made from elements in Motif and Instruction is made from elements in Pattern. In Instruction, ideas are proposed but not executed.
Stubborn as a Mule
Sara Dobbs
Paper and thread
4.25 x 11 in
2022
A zine made from digitally edited pencil drawings (drawings originally 9 x 12 in). The rope that intersects the zine can be pulled, closing the zine and forcing the mule and farmer together, making it unclear who is winning the tug-of-war.
Aerial View
Sara Dobbs
Acrylic paint, wood, cotton, canvas, paper, and rope
6 x 5 ft
2020
An installation that explores how environments are classified within categories of viewable landscapes. I placed a paper airplane over a canvas that is filled with a simple paint wash. Layered over the canvas is a quilt that mimics the arbitrary division of land with borders. The table has paper legs, the airplane in the painting is held up with strings, and the busts in the middle painting look out of a window at a brick wall. Nothing in the installation works properly.
Two Busts and a Window
Sara Dobbs
Acrylic paint on wood
9 x 12 in
2020
Part of Aerial View installation. The painting was a study of Hospitalfield's library, from a micro-residency in March 2020. The two busts are positioned as if talking to each other, staring out a window at the view of a brick wall.
Soil Building
Sara Dobbs
Acrylic paint, wood, paper, metal wire, metal dowel, string, acetate, and nails
6 ft x 3 ft x 7 in
2020
Part of an installation that explores the process of building topsoil. Wooden blocks are used as the structure of the piece. QR codes were placed into the work that linked to GIFs showing closeups of the ants’ actions (for left QR code click here, for middle QR code click here, for right QR code click here). Another component of the piece was a collection of wood blocks of various shapes and sizes (similar to the ones above) that could be used by anyone to build new configurations. Cut-outs of shapes and bugs were included that could be placed within the constructed buildings.
Coop
Sara Dobbs
GIF
2021.
Coop was part of a virtual exhibition space that used the aesthetics of the gallery to examine the construction of societal environments using the chicken coop as subject.
Six Feet Under
Sara Dobbs
Digital drawing composed of nine pieces, listed below (made from scans of paper collages)
2021
Top Row (Left to Right): Pecking Order, Lost, and Unknown
Middle Row (Left to Right): Mites, Egg Bound, and Torn to Bits
Bottom Row (Left to Right): Cross Beak, Cold, Dinner
Similar to the Medieval Wound Man found in medical texts, each of the nine pieces illustrate a way that chickens commonly die. Six Feet Under was part of a virtual exhibition space that used the aesthetics of the gallery to examine the construction of societal environments using the chicken coop as subject. Certain pieces from Six Feet Under were linked to GIF. To view Egg Bound’s GIF click here. To see Torn to Bits’ GIF click here.