Glowgrass

Rod Lathim

15” x 9” x 38”

Dobro Guitar, Neon

Rod Lathim’s Glowgrass transforms a vintage wooden dobro into a fusion of sculpture, sound, and spirit. Rooted in the traditions of American folk, country, and bluegrass, the dobro has long carried songs of landscape, labor, longing, and joy. Here, Lathim reimagines the instrument’s voice through the language of light. Instead of vibrating strings and steel, the melody is translated into an illuminated form.

Four neon “strings” extend down the length of the guitar, each glowing in bold, shifting hues that evoke the tonal variations of a musical phrase. Their vertical lines carry the visual rhythm central to Mash Gallery’s exhibition Rhythmic Contours, where artists reinterpret the linear form across medium and material. At the instrument’s center, a circular wash of sky-blue neon encircles the dobro’s resonator cone, creating a halo of soft radiance. This glowing ring echoes horizon lines, open fields, and the twilight hours when music drifts effortlessly into the air.

Lathim’s sculptural practice is deeply shaped by his 45-year career in theatre, where storytelling, human connection, and spiritual inquiry are core. In Glowgrass, he extends that legacy by sculpting with light itself, a medium he regards as healing, restorative, and profoundly alive. His transformation of a historic instrument echoes the object-based experiments of artists like Arman and Nam June Paik, while the use of neon aligns his work with light-art pioneers such as Dan Flavin, Keith Sonnier, and Chryssa. The presence of the dobro makes the piece unmistakably personal. Its past life, its worn wood, and its resonant chamber all become collaborators in Lathim’s meditation on memory, music, and transcendence.

The artwork’s emotional resonance lies in the way it brings the intangible qualities of music into the visible, physical space. Lathim renders melody as color, breath as radiance, and rhythm as illuminated line. The sculpture invites viewers to “listen with their eyes,” and to recognize how music and illumination can linger long after their source falls silent. Glowgrass is an homage to bluegrass traditions, illuminating the stories music carries and the quiet power of light that keeps those stories alive.