Sports figures are fair game for local artist
N.B. exhibit features both great, obscure athletes
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer

NORTH BRUNSWICK — Some of sports’ all-time greats are hanging around town hall this month.

Township resident Elise Dodeles currently has paintings from her Sports Series on exhibition in the Gallery of Art in the Municipal Building.

“In my work, my main concern is direct, honest expression, without irony or judgment,” Dodeles said. “The subject matter and my feeling for it is what I wish to convey.”

The series includes oil paintings of famous sportsmen such as Hank Aaron and Willie Mays and lesser known sports figures like Primo Carnera, an Italian immigrant and circus strongman, who became heavyweight boxing champion of the world in 1933.

JENNIFER KOHLHEPP Painter Elise Dodeles, of North Brunswick, has portraits, “Clinch,” (above) and one from her Sports Series (left) displayed in the Gallery of Art at the North Brunswick Municipal Building. Far left, Dodeles paints in her studio.

Influenced by Baroque art, as well as Outsider and Expressionist artists, Dodeles said she paints the sports figures from black-and-white photographs.

“This allows me to create my own color combinations,” Dodeles said. “Occasionally I will use color photos, but I prefer the mystery and nostalgic feel of the older, black-and-white images.”

With the sports paintings, Dodeles said she can use her “love for anatomy and the figure to convey pathos and heroism and to retreat into histories that seem simpler and more easily defined than the world we live in today.”

Dodeles’ inspiration to paint sports figures emerged from a hospital stay in 1999.

“I used to play sports when I was younger and rediscovered a love for them while recovering from surgery in the hospital,” Dodeles said. “That, combined with my studies of the human figure at the New York Academy of Art, made the series take off.”

Although baseball is not her favorite sport to paint, Dodeles’ work includes portraits of Aaron and Mays, and James “Cool Papa” Bell of the Negro Leagues.

“There’s a certain sadness to Cool Papa’s face in the portrait,” Dodeles said. “It is important for me to paint something that gets an emotional response from the viewer or from myself when I’m painting.”

Although the photographs she paints from are usually black and white, Dodeles said she likes to add colors to provoke an emotional response.

“I use a lot of organic and muted colors, and then bright hues like reds in action scenes, usually in the wrestling and boxing portraits,” Dodeles said.

Up to now, her art largely consisted of still life work.

“Still life work communicates feelings and explores the visceral qualities of paint,” Dodeles said. “I am committed to the use of painting and drawing to communicate feeling. Throughout my career, I have used my own form to explore issues of identity, and to further my understanding of drawing and painting methods.”

Dodeles has exhibited her artwork in various cities throughout the United States, Canada and Europe for over 20 years.

Her drawings were included in the Part Fantasy exhibits of the mid- to late-1990s.

Born in Oceanside, N.Y., she attended Carnegie Mellon and New York universities. She received an undergraduate degree in 1985 from the NYU. She received a master’s of fine arts degree from the New York Academy of Art in 1990.

In addition to creating her own art, she teaches painting and drawing in her home studio.

In May, her work will appear in an exhibition at Johnson & Johnson World Headquarters in New Brunswick.

Her exhibit at the township’s municipal building at 710 Hermann Road will continue through the first week of December.