Artist's Statement

I have always been intrigued with perception, movement, and life in it’s constant states of flux.  We continually adapt to this reality, interpreting meaning along the way.  The manner in which we perceive and process the world around us, while our brains assimilate the fragmented information, is incredible to me.  In my work, I attempt to evoke aspects and sensations of this perpetually changing world.  The images are often about moments that resonate in me. My concerns are initially formal in nature, however, storylines often take place in the process of making the pieces. I structure spaces to move through, often presenting the viewer with multiple perspectives and transparent planes, thus allowing individuals to complete the work.

Drawing from observation enables us us to record our personal experiences.  Over time, and through the building of this information, a representation of our perceptions comes into being.  This practice is fundamental to artmaking and demonstrates an important visual language, unique to the artist.  Similarly, physical activities and studies that require the repetition of hand/eye skills, allows a furthered intuitive response to our surroundings. We practice the disciplines that we are passionate about and strive to be better at what we do.

From an early age, I have had a great reverence for all living creatures and a caring kindness towards them. These beings frequently inhabit my work as they quietly live their secret lives in the natural world. In my mind, the more helpless the life form, the more entitled it is to protection by humankind from the cruelty of man. It would be my hope that celebrating some of these creatures through my works might bring awareness and compassion, empathy, and mercy for these innocent living entities.

Major influences to me through the years have been Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, Paul Cezanne, and contemporary, Jenny Saville.  These artists, as well as the Cubists, share my aesthetic which is rooted in drawing and adhere to the physical state of things.  Giacometti’s works, both in sculpture and painting, show us the structures of form itself and to even experience the spaces surrounding them. Their often transparent and diagrammatic representations are layered and compressed to form brilliant works of art. 

Mary W. Broadie Morgan, BFA, MFA

marymorganart.com