A 2016 studio arts alumna with an emphasis in drawing, painting and printmaking Gina Dodge, from Henderson Nevada, recently published a book of 100 drawings of plants.
Growing up, Dodge always had a passion for the arts.
“The moment I could hold a utensil, I have been drawing,” Dodge said. “I have just always been drawn to drawing and painting – like any art activity. It’s just always been my thing.”
Dodge recently published a collection of her drawings. Her book is called “100 Days of Plants.” Her inspiration to do the 100-day challenge came from Elle Luna, author and artist.
“I have this book that I love: it’s called ‘The Crossroads of Shoulds and Musts’ by Elle Luna,” Dodge said. “I loved her book, so I decided to start following her on Instagram.”
Every year, Luna hosts an annual creative challenge called #the100dayproject on Instagram. This year while Dodge was scrolling through her newsfeed on Instagram, she saw a post from Luna stating that the annual 100-day challenge would start the next day.
“So literally spur of the moment, I drew a picture of a plant and posted it on Instagram,” Dodge said. “I don’t know why I chose plants. I mean plants are everywhere. I eat plants. Plants are vegetables and fruits. And I wanted to post it on Instagram, so I could stick to it.”
Since Dodge started posting one picture a day on her artistic Instagram account, she was able to gain a large number of followers on her page.
“I don’t know when it started, but slowly all of my followers were like, ‘Gina I look forward to this every day’ or ‘I make sure I go to your account and see what plant you drew today,’” Dodge said. “And at one point my followers said, ‘We want these drawings. I want your book.’”
The only problem was, there were no books to sell. Dodge had just folded sheets of paper and handbound them. But with the help of some friends and kickstarter.com, her book became a reality. In the end, a total of 150 books featuring Dodge’s art were printed.
The book is more than just a publication full of pictures of plants. For Dodge, it is a journal.
“This has been a journal for 100 days in the middle of my life,” Dodge said. “I like to be sassy, and I feel like I got all my feelings out by drawing plants.It’s funny because people will open to a page and tell me how much they like the page and I look at that page and think, ‘Oh that’s the day that so and so did this to me and I was so hurt’ and it’s a picture of a cactus with the word support.’ I got all my feelings out via plants.”
This book is special for the people who have purchased a copy, but it was monumental for Dodge as well.
“We all have days when we don’t believe in ourselves, and I can look at this book and realize I have done something,” Dodge said. “I have been making jokes that next year I will do a 100-day project on pants. But no, I think I will do another 100-day project, but I haven’t decided on what yet.”
Dodge continues to follow her passion for drawing and painting. Visit @ginadodge_art on Instagram for more information.
Story By
Cassidy Harmon
Reporter2@suunews.com
