How did I begin as an artist?
Kindergarten. I had a loaded brush, bib, and smile ear to ear from the praise of my teacher. At 10 years old standing two feet away from the big Larry Poons dot painting at MoMA, with my mother quiet on one side of me and a gentleman standing on the other, I heard him softly say, “I don’t really think this is art”. I glanced at him as I felt a slow running wave of shock move from my feet through my body. How could anyone say something so illogical! I had no idea one could look at a museum piece and say it wasn’t art. That day, as I experienced the rest of our MOMA visit, blue dots still swimming in front of my eyes, I realized, I was sort of like Larry Poons, art didn’t have to be a particular thing or a particular way. It just was. That was the day I gave myself permission to be an artist in a way that felt right for me.
I love abstraction, color, gold and silver leaf, and movement in art. My work is an ever-changing process and experience and these reflective elements are so close to my heart and express the theme that solid matter is always energy in motion. In life, everything is energy in motion!
~ MARY
