Welcome to my new website!
Welcome to the new month, to a new blog post, and hopefully to a new spirit this year!
My beautiful new website now represents some of the full body of work that I have created over the years. You will discover that my artwork journey‘s evolution – my art voice – illustrates a concern for the environment; highlights my worldwide travels; vibrates with knowledge of the potential dangers in the nuclear bomb world; reflects the distress of the pandemic; touches on some serious political happenings; and finally delves even more deeply into inner places of the subconscious.
The four artworks featured in this newsletter have been completed since the COVID pandemic began in March of 2020.
“Spirit Before and After”
The first painting, titled “Spirit Before and After”, was painted immediately after going into lockdown in March, 2020. “Despair” could be another name of the painting. The COVID virus, with subsequent sickness and death, indeed impacted the questioning of life’s purpose and meanings. Grief was palpable.
“Lone Tree in Bryce Canyon”
As the months of isolation wore on in 2020, I tried to bring some positive energy into my makeshift small sunroom studio by painting scenes of our beloved US national parks, especially the ones I personally visited. Like two sides of a coin, the peace and calm and beauty of the parks was also being threatened by the person “ruling” Washington, DC. Despite these concerns, painting these pictures helped so much to bring me some semblance of sanity and healing.
“Present”
The many months following the March lockdown also afforded much needed quiet moments and the time to explore online classes. My hat is off to Janice Mason Steeves, a sublime Canadian artist, who offered a workshop about wild places – your own back yard! Because of Janice, I learned about more than painting. She introduced me to some of the world’s most significant poets and to the creative possibilities embedded in one’s own artwork process. Her vision to connect the artists in the class to the awe which permeates throughout nature birthed an entirely new direction in my painting. I pulled away from doing representative art and moved more into the abstract realm.
“On the Way”
I am continuing to probe, ponder, and posit questions about my being which is so interrelated with the nature of being. These new works are non-objective and admittedly more challenging to create.
I plan to keep you more informed about my work process in the future through my website and my newsletter. Please also follow me on Instagram @mld.artist.
Thank you for being part of the journey.
Stay safe,
Mary Lou