Brooklyn artist Margaret Withers presents her fascinating collection of “Curious American Landscapes.” Enjoy, and visit her website for more about her mixed media artwork.
“me. shattered into a far away cosmos” Gouache, flashe vinyl paint, ink, watercolor on paper, 29″ x 40″
My father worked for different Texas oil companies in the 1970’s and 80’s, and because of the nature of the work, every two or three years my family was uprooted, moved across county lines, and resettled – from Hays County to El Paso County, then to Nueces, Harris, and Bexar Counties.
“Cosmic ruminations marshaled into minute particles” Vinyl paint and ink on canvas, 40″ x 40″
This series of paintings depict the emotional landscape of my childhood as I remember it; a blur of color and movement flashing by the static iconography of the past of those tiny company houses where the roughnecks lived and old-style telephone poles.
“in linear time, my memory is clear as day” Gouache,vinyl paint, ink, watercolor on paper, 41″ x 29″
And sometimes, enveloping this landscape, out of balance in scale, space, and perspective, are these figures that seem to dominate and subdue, not with violence, but with curiosity and playful interaction.
“sudden prosperities of sunlight” Gouache,vinyl paint, ink, watercolor on paper, 22″ x 30″
Including undertones of play and humor is my way of engaging the viewer, extending an invitation to spend some time in this space, to figure out the story, or to pretend a new one. Besides a narrative element, I’m also trying to capture a fluid emotional response to nature and to time.
“if you must speak then please speak with words” Watercolor, ink, vinyl paint on paper, 30″ x 22″
What I love about painting is the discovery of how art progresses, so my goal is to be further along, closer to some truth, and to have my current style tightened and expanded.
“Archimedes’ lever” Gouache,vinyl paint, ink, watercolor on paper, 29.75″ x 41.5″
My business goal is be brave and bold and to get my art out there for people to see it and to adopt it into their own constantly changing family narrative.
“sipping, spent and trudged through the Gorner glacier bubbled” Gouache, ink, vinyl paint on paper, 22″ x 15″
I’m in a group show this summer at The Drawing Center in New York City where the phrase I was invited to respond to is warm::silence, and it’s been a lot of fun for me to puzzle out how to communicate warm::silence in my own style.
“paper pushing timestamp of my being” Gouache, ink, liquid lead, watercolor, on paper, 22″ x 30″
Out of this I’ve also started working in 3-dimensional paper-fold art and I have some ideas for small sculptures that I hope to start working on.
I’m engaged with these map-like images. Usually people spend maybe 3 seconds with most art. These demanded much more than that. She stated that she’s beginning to work in 3D paper folding. I would love to see those. I really like this work a lot.
Thank you Marti- I appreciate the feedback – the 3D paper foldout paintings are part of a series I’ve started where I create a folktale based on each state motto and a historical figure from that state. The first one I did was for the state of Oregon, whose motto is- Alis Volat Propriis or she flies with her own wings. The painting is an abstraction of Bethenia Owens-Adair, the first woman doctor in Oregon (a complicated and controversial person). I only have 49 left to go – LOL. You can see an image of the painting on my website under ‘New American Folktales’