Mary Gordon
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Mary Gordon was born in Weinheim, Germany, but calls the Flint Hills of Kansas home. She received her MFA with an emphasis in Printmaking & Book Arts from Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia, and BFAs in Printmaking and Painting from Kansas State University. In her work, she fuses fragments of prints through collage and mixed media to explore her natural environment, everyday interactions and overlooked happenings. Mary has participated in residency programs nationally, and exhibited work nationally and internationally. She currently lives and works in Manhattan, Kansas.
Artist Statement
In my creative practice, play is a methodology for making, as well as a lens for observing the world. Crossing over between media—mainly printmaking, painting, and collage—I make abstract and layered works to rekindle a sense of joy and nostalgia in young & old viewers alike. Deliberately and spontaneously, I record textures, colors, shapes and patterns in my surroundings. These elements begin as an impetus for making, as I zoom in and out of ellipses, triangles, and serrations, blurring and defining their forms against a horizon line. While making, ideas are further generated by discoveries made through experimentation, as I allow myself to respond to materials or “play” at the printing press. Printmaking and sculpture in tandem allow for layering, a sense of uncertainty and surprise, as well as the joy of tactility. In the end, cut shapes made of wood, paper and ink become personified characters, the aerial view of a landscape, the close-up of a pebble, or whatever the viewer’s imagination has in store. I find one of the most unique things printmaking can allow for is transparency through physical accumulation of material; a history of marks, textures and striations—the feeling of place.
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