Artist Statement

Undoing Each Loss

 

"They become the tangible landscape of memory, the places that made you, and in some way you too become them.  They are what you can possess and what in the end possesses you.” 

Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide To Getting Lost

 

 

My work explores memories of growing up in Melbourne in 1960's. 

We were a Catholic family of ten children living in a housing commission house in Preston.

My mother was hard working, dutiful and loving.

My father and brothers worked at the abattoirs.

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The paintings are cultivated from the ground of my childhood.

I map out the streets using newspaper clippings from the time; cut, copied and pasted to create imaginary pathways through the houses to the Darebin Creek where we as children roamed. 

The process of painting is informed by writing down the stories I remember, interviewing family members and others who lived through that time.

The painting then brings into being what can’t be said.

 

In the studio I study objects from the past, searching for the emotional resonance that holds the key to the story. I work with the conflicting emotions and accounts, bringing the love and violence of history to the table.

The work becomes a memory map, a way of making harmony from conflicting elements.

 

This is the gift of painting, the unexpected gift.

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The power of finding something you love.

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For any further information please make contact on the below:

email: marymartinartist@gmail.com