A Tincture of Time: Dana Dotson

Dana Dotson is a multi-talented artist, designer, and dancer based in Portland, ME. Her dreamy style is what made me think she’d be a good fit for developing the surreal landscape of A Tincture of Time (a psychedelic art film set in a hospital about a mother on a journey to save her ailing son). Dana developed ideas for an ultrasound dance, in which dancers mimicked the underwater undulations of a diagnostic ultrasound. She also created sketches and two complete prototypes for costumes for the film.

Funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts

Dana modeling the mother character’s vest

Initial concept sketch by Amelia Garretson-Persans which Dana used to design the mother’s costume. I wanted the mother’s costume to stand out against the more formal, druid-y costumes of the medical practitioners. I imagine her as a kind of civilian warrior. The world of the film is psychedelic, a little sci-fi. She could wander onto the set of Solaris and not be questioned.

Dana process shots.

Final costume modeled by Amelia

Costume sketches by Dana. I imagine the medical practitioners to look like shamans or Druids, accessing a layer of mystical knowledge that patients are not privy to. In the film, the mother befriends a nurse named Melodia who helps her to understand the mysterious inner workings of the hospital. I wanted Melodia’s costume and character to stand out in the way that one nurse who really seems to see you does.

Medical practitioner costume in process. I wanted the costumes to reference medical scrubs in color, hence the recognizable scrub green.

Finished medic costume modeled by Amelia

Trailer film still with actor in finished scrub costume.