Blue Snake Print

Originally from the UK with 25 years of NY life under my belt, I am currently living in the South of France where I have my studio practice. Follow me on Instagram @ mary_j_nicholson Artist Statement Untied to the narrative of the day-to-day and freed from the explicitness of daily life, painting is the perfect outlet for the unconscious. I first started painting because I felt a need to pry open the door that was locking in my innermost feelings; I wanted to see what would come out. At first glance, my paintings look figurative, as they borrow from images collected from the public domain. But in truth as a painter, my focus is on abstraction, the figure-ground dilemma, and how to not fall into the void as I grapple with the history of painting and its abstract development through the ages. When painting I remain self-aware and yet part of my unconscious mind clutches at symbols found in dreams and so the images found in the painting become vessels on which to cloak my internal dramas. The themes of my work revolve around a number of circulating and recognisable ideas, such as celebrity, technology, nature, ecology, heroism, theatre, love, and fashion. I enjoy searching for and using images from the world of fashion and like to play with modern concepts of beauty. I often use as a starting point photographic images from contemporary magazines or downloaded from the internet and enjoy, sometimes, collaging disparate images together so as to suggest a new narrative. I like to work quickly so that my paintings have a sense of immediacy. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for me is to paint in a direct manner, without hesitation so that my actions are not hindered by thought. Otherwise, the physical aspects of painting are relatively unimportant to me. I want the work only to impart a quality of being. Every line must speak every mark must have content and give meaning to the overall piece. Born in England, Mary Nicholson studied Painting in London and graduated with a BA from Chelsea College of Art in 1992 and an MFA from Hunter College, NY in 1995. Her group exhibitions include Governors Island Art Fair, NY; 'Up Aginst It', Munch Gallery NY; 'Materialism', Real Fine Arts Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; 'Love for Sale', NY Art Book Fare, P.S.1, Queens, NY; Troop48 NYC, John Connelly Presents, NY and The Zine Unbound: Kults, Werewolves and Sarcastic Hippies, Yerber Buena Center for the Arts, CA.