Drawing and Perception with M J Levy Dickson

The relationship between touch and surface, and moving and unmoving objects will be explored. Baring down hard on a surface will create a dark area or line, touching lightly will create the opposite effect. Participants will examine materials, drawing still life, in reference to light, cast shadows, texture, action, and movement, and create the illusion of space in two dimensions.  Concepts such as how to find movement in a still object or how to capture motion and make it stand still will be examined. What is the common denominator? The workshop will concentrate on your touch, your perception, what is real, and what is your point of view, what has been observed and what has not.

M.J. Levy Dickson explores global interconnectedness through her artwork, and has discovered a common denominator in the natural world. She finds in nature patterns of color, light, mood, subject, texture, and sound, which transcend conventional boundaries, such as those between land and water or time and space. These discoveries she reflects in her varied artwork, from her tenures as artist-in-residence in Tangier and at the Perkins School for the Blind to her many exhibitions in Iceland, Bali, the Caribbean, the American Southwest and China.

Dickson works in a variety of mediums to convey a composite relationship between mood and subject. With a deep body of work spanning oils, watercolor, pen and ink, glass and now metal sculpture, Dickson frequently explores the intersections of water with land and life. She adapts form, color, line, texture, weight, and mood to her unique expression. Playing the boundaries between Abstract, Realist, and Expressionist, she finds, records, and is inspired by the universal in nature.

Dickson has taught at MIT, the Boston Architectural Center, and Wenzhou-Kean University in China. Working with people with limited vision, mental health problems, children, older adults, individuals on the autism spectrum, and others with special needs has honed her instinct for art as communication. She provides a counterpoint to a culture in which emotions are intellectualized and verbalized – yet not available to everyone in these forms. Encompassing thought and meaning visually, tactilely, and aurally, she offers a bridge by which diverse audiences can experience the unexpressed.