American Art Collaborative

Otis Dozier represents the cotton plant in all its stages of growth, from planting to maturity to harvest, imbuing the plant with the symbolism of the life cycle itself. Raised on a cotton ranch near present-day Mesquite, Texas, Dozier pays tribute to the value of the agricultural product that once sustained the state of Texas until the domination of oil and ranching after World War II. This painting was exhibited at the 1936 Texas Centennial. After training in Dallas at the Aunspaugh Art School and the Dallas Art Institute, and with Frank Reaugh, Dozier himself taught for years at Southern Methodist University and at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (where the legacy left by him and his wife, artist Velma Davis Dozier, provides an annual travel prize to emerging artists as well as acquisition funds for tribal art). An inveterate traveler, his interests and collections encompassed the art of many cultures.