Dan Woodard

About

Archetypes...Myths...Rituals. I have long been intrigued and fascinated by these concepts. In my sculptures, both figurative and abstract, I employ these aspects of a collective unconscious to evoke an emotional state within the viewer. In my figurative work, my goal is to capture the myriad changing state of the human condition through subtle changes in facial countenance and body language. The end result shows how the inner condition is expressed by the outward form while also conveying a sense of this expression transcending both time and history. In my abstract sculptures, I have recreated the numinous quality of subconsciously shared images, stories, and ceremonial rites. The sculptures, themselves, are composed of abstract forms that are covered with a rich, textural surface. The end result is a complex organic piece that evokes a sense of ancient artifacts, of ritualistic objects from some unknown culture, or of imagined landscapes.

However, be it figurative or abstract, my ultimate goal is to have the viewer feel a sense of familiarity with the work...a sense of having experienced this before. I believe this feeling of deja vu arises from both the collective unconscious and a mystical center we all share.
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Website: http://www.danwoodard.com

Work

I have always loved the process of creation and have expressed this love in a variety of ways. I've been a fine art photographer with shows in New York, Boston, and other East Coast cities. I've been a cabinet maker, a stained-glass artisan, a writer, and a potter. However, for most of the past thirty years, my career focus has been as a script writer and film director. During this time, I received over fifty national and international awards for my work. These include: awards from the New York International Film Festival; the Chicago International Film Festival; the Houston International Film Festival; and the U. S. International Film Festival. In addition, I received several honors including a Louis B. Mayer Fellowship; a Stanford Fellowship; and selection into the Library of Congress CINE Collection.

In 2005, I began actively pursuing a long held fascination with sculpture. Since then, I've devoted more and more of my time creating three dimensional art. When I first began, many of my early pieces ended up in the slag heap of creation, as I refined both my sensibilities and my mastery of the many processes involved in creating sculpture. However, after a year or so, my sculpture began finding a way into my home and yard; and into the hands of friends. By 2010 I felt that my work was ready for public exposure. During my first year of exhibiting, my work appeared in several shows throughout California including: "Made in California;" "Art Outside the Box;" and the "California Open Exhibition."

At this point in my life, my career as a writer and director has given way to an encore career as a sculptor. … Read More

Education