JANUARY 2006, SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, USA
AN IMPROMPTU MEETING WITH DAVID ELGIN DODGE,
FELLOW OF THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

During January 2006, my wife and I decided to go and visit our daughter living in Fountain Hills near Scottsdale Arizona. Before we left Montreal Canada, I had called Mrs. Heloise Crista, the generous sculptor woman I had met at Taliesin West in October 2005, to see if I could meet her, to talk more extensively about my sculptor the Noosphere, and of course talk about her own work in sculpture, of which she accepted.

Preparing to go at my rendezvous to meet with Mrs. Heloise Crista on that day of January, I decided to take along with me drawings from my collection. Once I got at Taliesin West, while meeting her outdoor in the parking lot near the gate, I mentioned her that I had brought drawings with me. Spontaneously, and surprised at the same time, she said we would go and visit David, to show him the drawings. I did not know who was the David in question at that time.

Once we got by car at M. Dodge’s house, which is a short distance for the main entrance gate, we entered this beautiful avant-garde desert house, designed by M. Dodge himself an architect. Knocking at the huge thick oak door, then entering in this ultra modern house, we heard M. Dodge playing music on his electronic organ. He interrupted his music, came to us smiling and Heloise presented me to him. Once the presentation was done, Heloise took out from her bag the photography of my sculpture, the prize winning sculpture I had done back in 2003 in Montreal, and she showed it to him. At his first glance, he asked quite spontaneously, who was the one designing this glass sculpture. She replied by saying the person just next to him, Yves Jeanson. Quite frankly M. Dodge was really surprised, and commented favorably on my unique sculpture, asking me many questions about the sculpture: the material it was made off;  how I had done the glass spheres; how I had assembled them; how long it had taken me, the size of the spheres, et cetera. I did not fumble on any of the questions asked, and he told me from now on, to call him David instead of Mister Dodge.

Seeing their enthusiasm, I mentioned them that – since I had discovered the overwhelming FLW’s oeuvre and ideas- I wanted to give one of the three sculptures I had done on the same design to the FLW School of architecture. David was very receptive, and said that the FLWSofA would be very glad to receive this oeuvre, and additionally, that they would prepare a small event to officially receive the sculpture, dispatching at the same time, Heloise to organize this event sometime during the year 2006 in Scottsdale, Arizona. I was very happy. I couldn't of expected this to happen.

Once the first moment of excitement was over, Heloise explained to David, that I had brought drawings with me. This is where I started to have an immense moment of fun, excitement and mutual intellectual exchange with them. 

There I was for the first time ever in my life, with someone ready to listen, and they commented positively on every drawing I was taking out from the old square brown cardboard box they were in. David and Heloise were overwhelmed by the drawings I was showing them, while I was commenting on the meaning of such and such a drawing, using here and there FLW’s catch word expressions such as Form signify meaning; or Sullivan’s Form Follow Function, et cetera, which David acknowledged and brought his own comments in this most abstract discussion. David was so impressed that he said spontaneously: “ Those non objective art drawings, deserve the Guggenheim in New York.” (Later I discovered he had been with Mister Wright, working in the 1950s on the construction of the Guggenheim Museum). To corroborate my saying regarding the square unit system I was showing him from the square size drawings, he showed me his house original floor designs, based on a unit system. We were both on the same conceptual line. 

I was very impressed by such comments from people that had devoted all their lives in art, geometry and organic architecture also sculpture, as Heloise was a sculptor of which I bought a small sculpture back in october 2005. (The Man Reading). 

David concluded by saying that Mister Wright would of liked to see those drawings, and would of enjoyed the fact that they were drawn with simple color crayons, as he used himself in the rendering of his construction projects. The agreeable discussion lasted for a good part of the afternoon. I was overwhelmed by this impromptu meeting.

Thanking them for their good reception, I resumed my things, and went back to my daughter’s house to meet my wife and daughter to explain them the most interesting moment in my life tied to geometrical abstraction, and the positive comments I just had about it.

They had done my trip to Arizona.

By Yves Jeanson, July 2009

Yves Jeanson on Frank Lloyd Wright's Oeuvre