Mary Penn >> Albums

Work on paper
For years I've looked at biology textbooks for inspiration. In earlier drawings, shapes and tendrils suggest synapses, cellular structures, plants, and the human body. Through these forms, I feel I am locating points of interconnection, evidence of the elements which underlie all matter.
Plaster paintings
I rely on chance to animate the surface and create a structure on which to apply paint. Quasi-organic masses are produced by dropping plaster onto a prepared panel. The resulting bas-relief surfaces are a concrete demonstration of the dynamics of the materiality and viscosity of plaster, acting within the boundaries of gravity and space. When I make these, I attempt to strike a balance between controlling the flow of plaster and accepting its variable forms. If the color achieves what I intend, it can transform the white plaster surface into a form evoking some living mass or magnified geologic space.
Yard
These oil paintings have a slightly blurry appearance; this is not due to poor image reproduction. I painted them this way to make them seem "out-of-focus" like their source material. This series is based on a single photograph, an old snapshot that holds much more meaning for me than a casual observer could ever see in it. This was the first body of work I made after earning my MFA.
Using a scan of the photo, I made numerous crops, each one blown up anywhere from 200% to 3000%. Each transformation of the photo—through scanning, cropping, enlargement, and the act of painting—results in another layer of distortion. By using photographic source material, this work suggests preservation, while decay is implied in the process of degradation through enlargement.