ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is an exploration of narrative through allegorical sequential art to tell stories of loneliness, intimacy, and complacency. I use humor and cartooning to draw viewers into condensed compositions reflecting Catholicism and the mysticism surrounding the female figure in the sprawling American suburban landscape. The lush gardens and menacing white picket fence oasis’s of suburbia lend to visions of Eden and the garden of the Annunciation. These sites encapsulate the duality of women in the religion I grew up in, being both the virgin mother and the original sinner.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mary Climes was born and raised on the Jersey Shore. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016 where she studied comics and drawing. Since receiving her MFA in Printmaking at the University of Tennessee, she now teaches comics at The University of Wisconsin – Stout. Mary’s work has been shown in Western Exhibitions in Chicago, IL, The Asheville Art Museum, Asheville NC, and through several zine publications including those in Philadelphia PA and Chicago IL.
© Mary Climes