My work is a tribute to improvisational quilting, a tradition I deeply admire. Like a memory quilt, with its unpredictable stacking of shapes and colors, my pieces reflect on places I explored as a child, and the people and adventures that populate my past. I approach painting intuitively and am entirely process driven. Obsessed with layering, I start with opaque layers of acrylic paint and follow with translucent washes. I pull combs through wet paint to strengthen depth and texture, building line and movement. Warm and cool colors live in harmony in my work and are inspired by years of travel and living in places from the arid, craggy Sonoran Desert down to crisp, cool New Zealand. These color memories are a central part of my work and the optimistic energy it conveys. I like to think of my work as color celebrations; a stacking of playful color conversations joyfully stitching my life experiences together.
Poppy Dodge is an abstract painter living and working in Petaluma, California. Poppy is a self proclaimed Color Maximalist who delights in creating harmony and balance using all the colors. Her work explores her obsession with stacking color and shapes and is influenced by modern quilting and abstract collage. Poppy graduated with her BFA from California State University East Bay with an emphasis in painting and drawing in 2003. Upon graduation, she moved to Los Angeles where she began her career in art education and studio art. In 2013, Poppy and her family grabbed an opportunity to move to Wellington, New Zealand. Inspired by living on the sea, Poppy’s work shifted from playful narratives to brightly colored abstracts. After five years abroad, Poppy and her family relocated back to Northern California in 2018. Poppy can be found making art in her home studio, gathering inspiration on hikes with her black lab, or out and about with her family.