ARTIST STATEMENT
During COVID, I felt the need to express the frustration and anger that I and many others were feeling. I started a few collaborative art projects with local restaurants and one with the local animal shelter. I started thinking about animals and how they get portrayed in pet portraits. I thought about ways that I could lightheartedly portray an angry dog, because animals should be allowed to have bad days too. Painting these angry girls on pink actually made people laugh—it gave folks a way to say, “it’s ok to feel angry and frustrated” and I feel it too! I was tempted to call it the “Bitch, please!” series.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
I was born and educated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1987. I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and began pursuing an art career shortly after my children were grown. After studying various art forms such as stained glass, watercolor, ceramics and completing a one-year apprenticeship in goldsmithing, I concentrated on oil painting. My style is of an impressionistic nature, with liberal use of pallet knives, emphasizing light and shadows, interesting textures and variations. I like to lead the viewer to see my subjects, whether they are still lifes or landscapes, from a different perspective, evoking the sense of my encounter with that scene. I am embracing the phrase “art activism” in my thoughts as I create my work—hoping that there is a call to action in the viewer, not only in a political way, but in any way that gets my viewer to react and think or feel differently having seen my piece.
© Mary Kamerer