Mary Early-Artist talk

The art talk earlier this semester was with the local Washington, D.C. artist Mary Early. Early is renowned sculptor, printmaker and drawer who primarily works with beeswax and wood material. She ultimately creates works that involve post-modernist ideas, revolving around the organic nature of her materials. One of the first things that Early stated was her reason for choosing to work with such an ephemeral material was that it wasn’t permanent, which was an intentional decision. She takes long strips of wood, glues them together and then literally paints the beeswax onto the wood in 3-dimensional forms that somehow exploit the architecture. She says that lighting is an important part of her work as well, and that she wanted to create works that seemed like they made themselves. One particular work of beeswax in a circular pattern, with holes around the entire sculpture, plus one in the very center was very beautiful. The yellow color of the beeswax works nicely with the gallery setting that it’s displayed in, and it seems so smooth and organic, yet it’s completely man-made. She seems to work a lot with geometrical forms and the axis’ that each can create when placed against eachother. From doing this, Early was able to create sculptures that seem to “continue infinitely.” One last alteration that she applies to her work is the use of water onto the wood and beeswax, which is done to warp the look of the wood, and to “cause deformity to result in something unplanned.” I honestly really liked Early’s work, although I’m not a sculptor I could clearly see where she was grabbing her ideas; simply working with the continuation of lines that connect together to the center is one of her main paths to creating this work. Using the element of repetition, Early says that she is inspired by sculptor martin Puryear, whose work obviously resembles Early’s. Quiet and poetic, the sculptures seem to take over the space of the room with its single form, forcing the audience to take a step back and actually explore the natural form and shape of the sculpture. Overall, I really enjoyed Mary Early’s talk on her life and work. I think that her work embodies a concept that most people can’t connect with internally, natural form, so for her to push this onto her audience is exceptionally pleasing.