Comments

No user comments

Biography

I paint because I have to. In the solitude of my studio I find balance. I find sanctuary in art that allows me to live my life more fully. . . the excitement, the love, the fears, and the challenges. Artistic purging allows me to take in life more authentically; it takes out the denial and the fear so I can really see life for what it is. I hope my paintings create in each person who sees them, even briefly, that balance, that presence, that experience of life in the moment. With expressive brushwork and the passionate use of color, I capture a moment in time. My line work and my use of shape recall reality but still leave room for individual interpretation. My shapes are often magnified, sometimes from disparate points of view, but always abstracted. I believe that subtle relationships and the underlying forces in life are often lost in literal interpretation and I hope that my work inspires the viewer to discover their personal perspective. I have a dynamic, intuitive creative process. I allow my emotions to be expressed through the formal art elements. My use of line, color and shape all influence the use of the other. And, as they build upon one another, the painting becomes an expression of my being: my joy, my love, my feminine energy . . . always authentic, always sensual and always my balance in life. My creative process is similar to that of jazz but with an end product that lives on beyond the performance. My art is to be felt, not defined. On a visceral level, I hunger for rich color. I can't imagine life in black and white. The absence of color would drain the life out of life. It is in the contrast of color and values that we're able to experience the full range of life. Personally, I am searching for the perfect color which defines my passion for life. Of course, I try many colors: vibrant, muted, pastel, but I return to a rich range of colors paralleling my life, a full range of emotions. Mary has a masters degree in art from Marshall University and has studied with several internationally renowned artists. She has served as an art educator, a judge and an art consultant over the twenty-five years of her painting career. Mary has won numerous awards and is represented in public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe. Mary works and resides in Cincinnati, Ohio

Contact MaryBarrRhodes's Gallery!