
Welcome
I see the painting not as a window looking out, but rather as a container in which I can freely arrange and rearrange things.
In the studio I seek to set up a dialogue between myself and the canvas. As if I’m meeting a new person. Like a conversation of sorts. I start with no preconceived plan. Sometimes this goes well and the exchange is cheerful, often times it goes in unexpected directions and can get quite uncomfortable and even look embarrassing. I think ‘oooh yuck, ok great.’ This gets me excited to try a new tack, usually something risky in order to salvage the painting.
The varied experience of the everyday is the aesthetic filter through which I approach painting. I bring what I have in the moment as I meet the painting; torn magazine shards, photos, song lyrics, doodles, notes and sketches of street life, fragments of other artist’s paintings, Instagram glimpses, drawings and collages. I juxtapose and layer many disparate things much like thoughts, events and memories might be arranged in a dream.
In the safe solitude of the studio I find I can let go of traditional ideas of good painting and be free to explore my idea of visual delight.
Work on show
- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mary_visser/
- Everard Read Cape Town +27 21 418 4527 www.everard-read-capetown.co.za
- Kalk Bay Modern +27 21 788 6571 http://www.kalkbaymodern.co.za/mary-visser
- 131a Gallery https://www.131agallery.com/all-artworks/mary-visser
- Infinart +27 21 761 2816 https://www.infinart.co.za