Winds of Chance (2nd State)

Dorr Bothwell

Dorr Bothwell first saw screenprints in Los Angeles in 1941 at Raymond and Raymond Gallery and became intrigued by the medium. Fellow California artist Marion Cunningham had learned the method at the Art Students League from WPA serigrapher Harry Sternberg but would not show Dorr, who then bought Sternberg's book on the process and taught herself. Silk was scarce, it was all being used by the war effort but was able to get San Francisco art supply salesman Herman Flax to sell her a second hand screen and some paint and tusche.

Bothwell notes about her work from the 40s: "...I wound up with a good grade of paper used for printing. I did my first prints with that, which were based on European modernist influences, particularly Miro." This image, "Winds of Chance" is a series of small, abstract black drawings, crammed into a single composition, like graffiti, and overprinted with colors.

Dorr Bothwell was self-taught in this medium and she stated: "So here I am, practically self-taught–certainly I taught myself serigraphy. I was on the cutting edge. At one point I was the only woman in Northern California doing this. This fits with myself in being an innovative person. Maybe artistically I'm not that hot–I believe that –but I've brought things along. And I'm still trying to learn, still trying to show the beauty and design underlying all."

Dorris Hodgson Bothwell, known as Dorr, was born in San Francisco in 1902. Her family moved to San Diego in 1911 and Bothwell began her art studies five years later with Anna Valentien. She returned to San Francisco in 1921 and enrolled in the California School of Fine Arts where she was greatly influenced by Gottardo Piazzoni. Bothwell continued her studies at the University of Oregon, Eugene and then returned to San Francisco where she attended the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design.

Bothwell moved to San Diego and then to Los Angeles where she joined the circle of post-surrealists which included Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundberg. She studied under Feitelson in classes organized by the Public Works of Art Project and she was accepted into the mural division of the WPA and painted murals in Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Francisco. During this time, Bothwell learned the technique of serigraphy.

In 1968, Bothwell and Marlys Mayfield co-wrote the book 'Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design,' which encompassed the principles developed in her teaching. She received the Abraham Rosenberg Fellowship, the 1979 San Francisco Women in the Arts award, and was twice awarded Pollock-Krasner grants.