Buck Dodds, a Montana Polymath since 1962, tells stories. He’s got a lifetime of lived experiences, and he weaves that into his fiction. He writes novels, short fiction, and shares experiential life hacks.
Buck branched into prose after completing his BFA from Montana State University. He was a winner in the Writer Advice 2023 Flash Fiction contest and his work has placed top 10 and 20% in Oxford University Press’ Flash Fiction Masters competition.
Artist Statement: “Good art is accessible to a variety of sophistication by design, and great art is accessible to all levels.” – Buck Dodds
“Ah My Art! (Self Portrait, 2010, ABOVE) destroyed perceived myths about good art that gaslit my career prior to finishing my BFA: My colorblindness is not a handicap. Unique art needs no signature, and the subject of art does not have to look like a noun.” – Buck Dodds
Welcome to buckdodds.com
This website holds Buck’s life work, and it’s a good place to pick up some decent short prose, or a 3-step total-life hack from a guy who’s been there, done that and still doin’ the fun stuff. His career spans invention/innovation, fine art, engineering, music, film/stage, and literary fiction.
Buck Dodds = Odds Bucked
Executive Summary:
Buck Dodds is a Myers-Briggs INFP with exceptional language comprehension skills. He’s an expert in high-concept, unspoken linguistics with a sharp aesthetic. He is driven to improve the human condition through elegant design, humor, and thoughtful reflection. He thrives on creating positive propoganda.
Prior to completing his Arts degree, he was sole inventor on three provisional, and one regular forensic patent application. Garnering overwhelming community support, he launched a start-up to develop his invention, raising $200,000 in two years (2000, 2001).
He was mentored by Roland Taylor, from 1993-2000 and garnered Banik and Associates their first Montana Addy award (direct mail campaign). He also studied colored pencil technique with Ann Kullberg, and won the 1992, national Kinko’s innovation contest, (overnight order form, saving hundreds of thousands annually).
Origins in Community:
His first performance at the age of five was in his church Christmas play. He continued to develop his inherent talent as an inaugural-year participant in the government sponsored social program, Headstart.
In Junior High, at Paris Gibson Jr High, the school district chose him as the first and only “gifted and talented” student for the infant program. The Great Falls School District sent him each week to mentor with the legendary Norma Ashby, by observing the live television show, Today in Montana on KRTV, Channel 3. By the summer of ’75, he was doing summer stock with (now) emmy award winning casting director, Rene Haynes, in “Lil Abner.” In ’76, he was a Montana Youth Employment Core grantee, and got paid to work backstage at Summer Showcase with “Dim Bulb the light man” as his moniker on the sign-in sheet.
As a sophmore at Great Falls High, he designed lights for the University of Great Falls’ stage production, Bus Stop. In his Junior year of high school, he recieved his first portrait comission, and was running the camera for the local news at KFBB-TV, Channel 5 in his senior year. By the time he’d graduated, he’d done several musical performances outside of school with the “Out to Lunch Bunch,” “Delphian Choir and Chamber Singers,” “The Four Fish,” and as a soloist for private occasions. He went on to MSU with a music scholarship and completed 55 credits towards a film degree..
Seems being in the last 7th-grade Paris Gibson Pioneer class to grace the halls of the contemporary art museum, Paris Gibson Square, and watching half of that school go up in flames for the Charles Bronson feature film, Telefon, seered an enduring pioneering creativity into Buck.
Buck Dodds is accepting writing or publishing offers, and performance production contracts.
Contact: buck@buckdodds.com. His unique POV and creativity can be invaluable for a variety of products and services.