THE PROVINCETOWN INDEPENDENT
By Susan Rand Brown
Dakota X turns muscle cars on rugged landscapes into objects of veneration. X ran a house painting business in Provincetown in the 1990s to support an artistic career. Back then, Dakota went by the name Deborah Martin, lived in town and began taking the Polaroid photographs that ended up on display at the Driskel Gallery, which occupied the front of what was then the newly restored Schoolhouse Center.

THE PROVINCETOWN INDEPENDENT By The Independent
“All of the work in the exhibition, like Randi’s novel, portrays the concerns, the losses, and the hopes of individuals or families living with emotional or physical challenges,” said Dakota X in an email. “The artists were selected to include a range of challenges that the artists or their subjects have faced in their lives, from learning disabilities to Autism Spectrum Disorder to HIV/AIDS.” Participating artists include Fine Arts Work Center fellow Nick Fagan, Sara Lee Hughes, Ryan Landry, Bobby Miller, Pasquale Natale, Dakota X, and Laurence Young.

Provincetown Magazine
May 4, 2022 by Rebeca M Alvin
WHAT WE GIVE (The Exhibition) Curated by DAKOTA X.
What We Give What We Take (The Book) by Author Randi Triant.

All of the work in the show is either by or about people with emotional and/or physical challenges. At first, Triant approached artist Dakota X, who uses they/them pronouns, because they had done a series of portraits of autistic children and their families and was similarly interested in themes of struggle, challenge, disability, and living outside the mainstream. From there, it was decided that Dakota would not only participate but also curate the show.

Deborah's portraits of preteens with Autism exist in the same world as her landscapes. Deborah's refined painting techniques create a sensation of inquiry about what her subjects are thinking and feeling. She has captured a snapshot of a distilled moment, where we see into her subjects, we sense their wonderment of the world around them and their fear that the world is unpredictable. These portraits are naked in their truth, with souls laid bare. They are unsettling because of their openness and willingness to be fragile. Most of us have a built in armor that has had years to toughen up against the harsh realities of life. Somewhere along the way, we shut down to the innocence we were brought into the world with. Deborah's subjects are portraits of what has been lost, both in our quest for the American Dream and the ability to stop and be in awe of the simplest pleasures that life has to offer.

In what may seem like a big departure, Martin is now working on a new artistic pursuit with Portraits of Autism, which will have its first exhibition starting this week at Art Market Provincetown Gallery (AMP). The show features portraits of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) in this deeply personal work. For many years Martin worked with children and adults with special needs, and as an artist she wanted to draw attention to the challenges these people and their families face. In particular, she was drawn to the problem when these children turn 21 and are no longer eligible for federal support so families are forced to navigate the often confusing maze of state bureaucracy, or find that their state offers no assistance at all.

Martin seems motivated by the jumble of memory, wanting some confusion to activate her emotion. In the last five years, Deborah Martin has concentrated on painting local habitations far removed from mainstream America, yet evoking quintessential core values in our national psychology. She manages to avoid a voyeuristic curiosity while honestly exposing unselfconscious attitudes of strange places where people have made themselves comfortable.

Presented as alone in their private worlds, the softly lit children in Deborah Martin’s new series, “Portraits of Autism,” leave an after-image. Martin is best known for painting Provincetown’s out of the way cottages on the verge of gentrification, and trailers in the California desert seemingly abandoned by present- day Okies. The new work is just beginning to evolve as a series. Always drawn to scenes communicating vulnerability, loss and loss’ opposite, persistence, in these portraits Martin explores similarly complex emotions within the landscape of the souls of autistic children.

In “Eddie at Five,” a boy looks out with tender purity. The innocent surprise filling his large, round eyes pulls the viewer in. Tulip lips convey the sweetness of a summer strawberry. Somehow his striped shirt makes Eddie look even thinner, as if a strong gust could carry him off.

Curated by Elizabeth Tinglof, SHē is a powerful group exhibition on what it means to be a woman – and what society sees a woman to be. The show presents a variety of works in a wide range of media focusing on the implied standards of perfection for women, and the female body as both object and subject. At Launch LA in mid-city through Sept. 29th, the show features the work of Kim Tucker, J Michael Walker, Douglas Tausik Ryder, Andrea Patrie, Deborah Martin, Cima Rahmankhah, Sara Alavikia, Kristine Schomaker, FLOAT (Kate Parsons & Ben Vance), Annelie Mckenzie, and Phung Huynh.

Arts Editor of Provincetown Arts Magazine Chris Busa Interviews Painter Deborah Martin

“This exhibition is not only a tribute to the artists who have found inspiration in the Salton Sea, it is a tribute to the endurance of the sea itself, and to the people who are dedicated to preserving it,” says the show’s curator, Deborah Martin, who’s also one of the artists.

The exhibition covers a variety of media, including photographic works by Bill Leigh Brewer, Doron Gazit, Christopher Landis, Joan Myers, Kim Stringfellow, and Victory Tischler-Blue. Andrew Dickson, Mary Austin-Klein, and Eric Merrell will show new landscape paintings, including Merrell’s sea-inspired nocturnes, while Martin exhibits work from her series “The Slabs: The Last Free Place in America.” La Quinta Arts Foundation scholarship recipient Cristopher Cichocki has a video work in the exhibition alongside sculpture by Ashley Hagen and Aili Schmeltz. There’s also a site-specific installation by Los Angles-based Thinh Nguyen, who’ll also present a durational performance, “From Dawn to Dust,” on April 1, from 5 to 7 p.m. “I’m mourning the rise and desolation of the area’s abandonment, and I’m praying for its fate,” he says. “If nothing is done, it could lead to a disastrous dust bowl and pollution.”

For decades, artists have come to the sea to put their stamp on its waters. In April, the Salton Sea History Museum in the restored North Shore Yacht Club opened its inaugural exhibition, Valley of the Ancient Lake: Works Inspired by the Salton Sea. Curated by Deborah Martin (with historical works and memorabilia provided by Jennie Kelly), the exhibition features 10 artists who focus their work on the sea. To contextualize their paintings, drawings, and photographs, it’s helpful to know they follow the path of several generations of artists.

Deborah Martin turns to ethereal abstraction to express the emotional experience of autistic children and the people closest to them. Martin’s intuitive understanding of autism stems from years of working with special-needs children during college and an enduring relationship with a close friend who struggles with this complex spectrum disorder. The families committed to the project span the country. Through social media, Martin keeps track of each child and his or her support system. “When an image or a story speaks to me, I begin to envision how to represent that family’s experience.”

Walt Whitman wrote in the preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, “The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.” This theme manifests throughout the work of Deborah Martin, a contemporary realist landscape painter who conveys the essence inherent within marginalized communities that exist on the fringes of American society.

During much of his career, Whitman worked as a reporter. This experience proved formative to his development as a poet. Comprised of detached observations, rich with crisp imagery, Whitman’s poetry embraced a new style of writing that depicted modern America, marked by man’s imprint.

Before taking up painting, Deborah Martin looked to the camera as her primary vehicle for expression. Photography, which she continues to pursue, has lent her an uncanny capacity for documenting details that often go unnoticed. Likewise, photography has armed her with an unbiased eye. In the same vein as Whitman, Martin’s strength lies in her objective point of view, which she uses to expose what Peter Frank describes as the “unselfconscious attitudes of strange places where people have made themselves comfortable.”