Mary Belknap

Using an array of media, Mary Belknap (b. 1944) subjects each art-piece to her rigorous patterning. Made from short swatches of scribbled color and intersections of loose lines, her work hovers between the formal and the gestural. The repetitions of small marks coalesce as building blocks for the larger structures in her work. These discrete bits of color generate action and movement within the individual piece as a whole, which allows it to reform with each viewing, never settling on a fixed definition. Trees and other organic forms are processed through her meticulous abstraction until they too emerge shimmering in their transformations, and renewed as visual objects. Her palette has softened recently, from its early electric vibrancy, into a quiet elegance that intensifies the uniqueness of her mark making and composition.

Belknap has been a studio artist at Creativity Explored since 1995; her work was chosen by CB2, one of our community arts partners, as the basis for a limited edition rug.