Introducing Artist-in-Residence Maria Wallace
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| "Love Max", 2011, oil on canvas. By Maria Wallace. |
"Basically I am an artist to be who I am," she told us in her application, "Art to me is a way to access the most incomprehensibly able parts of myself. Drawing represents the ability to use parts of the brain and the self one can’t know through thought. It is easy to feel powerless without creativity since so little of what we do can be fully understood. But I feel like all transcendent human potential really can’t be conceived by the limited mind, yet it is totally necessary. To me, the ability to do things one can’t understand is not only a hallmark of making art but is the approach to apply to all areas in which we seem stuck."
The source of Maria's creativity has always been the natural world, which in the past has been represented by Prospect Park and her own back yard. She grew up next to an apple orchard, and ever since has been especially drawn to apple trees. She's done a lot of work drawing outside around New York City, and painting inside. "Being out of the city and on a farm, which in addition to being a more natural and harmonizing place, explicitly represents the present and presence, is exactly the cultivation my art and I need."
Here are some samples of her work (more at http://mswallace.net!):
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| "Like Bunnies", 2011, Oil on Canvas, 31" x 30”. By Maria Wallace. |
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| "Party Girl" |
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| "Stormy Peaches", 2011, Oil on Canvas, 12" x 19” |
Be sure to see Maria's works-in-progress and more finished pieces at our open house this Saturday, where she will be our featured artist for the first annual Thousand Islands region Artists' Studio Tour!
For more information about betterArts residencies and to apply, click here.
