Marilyn P. Hemenway Artist Statement

FOX ARTIST OF THE WEEK MARCH 27 - 31, 2006

Contact: 281.343.8905
marilyn_art@earthlink, mph_art@yahoo.com
Marilyn will be at the Yale Street Arts Market, Saturday, April 1st.
548 West 19th St. in the Heights!

Marilyn with Dwight Bullock at Yale St.

Monday, March 27:

Artwork: Windows to My Soul / From the Ocean I came to the Ocean I Return:
This piece is a self-exploration of the artist’s Pacific Islander roots. Abstract images retrieved from her memories and personal struggles are transformed onto a large 4’ x 4’-4” canvas through unconventional manipulated acrylic pours. Completed in 3 months, the process is an integral part of the finished product.

Tuesday, March 28:

Artwork: Quick Pour:
This non-objective piece is a “quick” pour where the paint is unconventionally manipulated with toothpicks and gravity before it dries on a 3’ x 3’ canvas. Completed in 1 day, the artist’s spontaneous inventiveness is crucial to the process for the finished piece.

Wednesday, March 29:

Artwork: Other World:
An earlier non-objective playful piece is a mixture of brush application, line drawings, and miniature paint pours on a 3’ x 4’ canvas of vivid colors and movement. Completed in 2 months, the process created an “other” world.

Thursday, March 30:

Artwork: 2 Shades of Green:
In this non-objective piece, line drawings and miniature pours interact with each other while moving over a blue green and olive green ground, side by side, each affecting the appearance of the drawings and pours into pleasing slight variations. A 3’ x 3’ canvas was completed in 1 month. Process, influenced by the artist’s obsessive involved nature, plays an integral part in the piece.

Friday, March 31: Artwork: Blue Universe:
This mixed media piece is a reminder of the artist’s love of science; the images are reminiscent of images viewed under a microscope. This piece was a challenge to limit the color pallet to blues and silver to appreciate slight variations in monochromatic colors for a more subtle approach. Process, thru unconventional means, completed in 1 month on a 4’ x 4’ canvas, is an integral part of the piece.

See the other Artists that have been in the news!

Autobiography / Artist Statement:

Originally from the tropical island of Guam, I have made Richmond Texas my home for ten years. However, my Pacific Islander roots still remain in my work. I am a second-generation artist. I wanted to create art distinct from my parents’ to make a name for myself. I finally found a niche as an artist with my own unique style. Along with a BFA graduate painting degree from the University of Houston, my colorful and insightful professors, the overall contemporary art scene on and off campus, and my peers moved my art in new directions culminating in what I choose to do now as a creative artist.

I specialize in acrylic and mixed media. Along with the brush, I rely heavily on both large scale and minute scale paint pours, manipulated via gravity, toothpicks, metal tips, etc.—any means possible to manipulate the paint guided by my obsessive compulsive urges. I often use rhythm; usually humming or whistling, as a compass for what direction the painting will go, something else I “inherited” from my parents. From humble beginnings of doodles, my current work has evolved. “Doodles” are what we all do at one time or another, almost at a subconscious level, somewhat automatic, what the mind induces us to do while we are not really thinking about it simultaneously with some other activity. I want to take a step further and explore what will transpire.

The nature of my paintings is a personal challenge to “push the envelope” of my psyche as well as with the viewer. My unconventional approach makes process as much as an integral part of my art as well as the finished piece. My goal is to test and explore my own capabilities in an abstract form in 2-D to invoke universal appeal.

My art is an outlet of challenging and exploring the human imagination for both the artist and the viewer. Subject matter is not defined; I want the viewer to come to individual conclusions, unique to the viewer’s own life experiences. I prefer the viewer first look and then read the title of the piece (or not at all!). After the initial glance, to persuade the viewer to take a deeper look and discover something new in the hope of finding intrigue or beauty from an intrinsic level between viewer and art. For the viewer, my art is an invitation to my own private world. My art is an extension of who I am. For me, art is like the air I breathe to live.

Marilyn P. Hemenway
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