As part of the Columbia Festival of Arts, Columbia Art Center Galleries presented, Art Reinvention - an exhibition featuring art created with collected natural materials featuring artist, Marcia Wolfson Ray works titled, Out of Context.
The sense of mystery at the center of life is echoed in the forms, rythms and patterns represented in nature. She is influenced not only beauty, but by the physical manifestation--the geography of place, the season, the temperature, and the light. She collects all the materials used in her work in fields, marshes, by the side of the highway and in vacant city lots. After collecting the materials which include bamboo, hibiscus, dog fennel, corn, reeds, grasses, and various other plants, she allows them to sit in her studio for years, so she is able to study them and their presence over time. She tries to minimally impose herself on the materials in her art, so that it becomes a true collaboration with nature.
Earlier today, she had a discussion at Howard Community College's Rouse Compoany Foundation Gallery about her path to becoming an artist. Below is some of what she shared.
"I did a lot of figurative sculptures like clay or casting. I was very influenced by Paul Clay because I fell in love with his work. I did water color, with sand on the surface. After a while I applied to Towson and Maryland Institute, thinking I would get accepted into Towson and rejected by the Maryland Institute. I was rejected at Towson and accepted at the Maryland Institute and given a fellowship. So, you see that you never know. I did water color with acrylic and sand on the surface. My works got more three dimensional and I began tearing and weaving paper.
I had a tree cut down and I thought I'd get a couple of car loads of twig, but I got a lot more and I built a 5ft twig spiral. I use some materials I know and some I don't know, but I don't let that stop me. Some of the materials I use include corn husk, dog fennel, straw and phragmites.
I also teach in a public school part time. Some members of my Darwism class are here tonight. If you think about it, it all fits in together. You can't know the way, that's at the bottom of my belief . Sometimes, I have an idea. Sometimes I tie the sticks together and it grows on its own. When I started, I just put things together, some things are fragile and fall apart, while some get strong, but they are not designed for outside."
About the Sculptur: I am a sculptor who uses organic materials such as wood, phragmites, dog fennel, straw, grasses etc. to construct my pieces. I received my BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. In 1993 I received a fellowship to attend the Mount Royal School at the Maryland Institute and received my MFA in 1995. Some of the venues I have shown at include: Montpelier Arts Center, in Laurel, MD, Rockville Arts Place, the Chrysler Museum, in Norfolk,Virginia, Arlington Arts Center in Virginia, Loyola College, Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. In January, I will have a show at Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston Virginia. The inspiration for my work comes from nature, its forms, rhythms and patterns, including the physical manifestation of working outside including the light, temperature and season of the year, which all brings me to the sense of mystery at the center of life. I collect the materials myself from from places as varied as vacant lots in Baltimore to fields in the Eastern Shore of Maryland. - Source: Author's website
For more on the artist, visit http://bakerartistawards.org/nomination/view/marcia_wolfsonray/3545 Below are some of her works which are also available for viewing at Howard Community College's Rouse Compoany Foundation Gallery at the Horowitz Center for the Arts. Enjoy.
Gallery Patrons
No comments:
Post a Comment