Mary Wong, B.A.

 
 
My work has predominantly been about using the landscape and the human psyche as a vehicle to invoke beauty and the sublime through abstraction. 


Currently, my focus has shifted to include a broad look into the concerns and issues surrounding global warming.  I am interested in the degradation of our natural environment.  More specifically, how the effects of pollution impact our environment and builds from the actions of the global community. 


The works in Gallery I are examples of my on-going series of paintings that illustrate the consequences of our actions.  Moreover, it is a statement about our inactions that maintain the status quo and stifle progress for greener alternatives that encourage the sustainability of our planet.  


In this new body of work, I envision landscapes that belie a state of familiarity; suspended moments in time of places and images that evoke a sense of past acquaintance.  However, these images quickly reveal a progressive state of deconstruction - a world collapsing upon itself in order to begin anew.  Although these landscapes are dramatic, they are reflective of how we have acknowledged the effects of pollution, but are slow to rectify the problem.


The palette is a mix of natural and synthetic-induced colours, reminiscent of chemical toxicity.  The development of a painterly sedimentary aesthetic has been created to emphasize the subtle struggle between decay and rebirth.   As a result, a heightened environment emerges that is both melancholic, and yet hopeful that the state of the environment is not irrevocable.

 

Artist Statement