Marilyn Maricle: Artist’s Narrative
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Color and shape have had a powerful influence on me. They are a strong force in ritual, give meaning to religious ceremony and symbolic form to dreams. In endless combinations, colors and shapes have appeared on the costumes of dolls, puppets, storytellers, actors, dancers, priests and shamans. Tapestries, scrolls, quilts, murals and mosaics have recorded events and expressed emotions. Complex and intricate works are meditative both for the maker and the viewer.

As I travel, watch dance, listen to music, experience theater and study the art of many religions and cultures, I am informed as an artist. My work includes figures, architecture, landscapes and language.

Human and animal figures are used in an atmosphere of intense color, hard-edged shapes and free-flowing energetic lines to express music and dancing.

Elements of architecture are used because in the world, in the theater and in places of worship they define and enclose spaces within which interactions and events occur.

Landscapes are used to symbolize places people journey to for meditation and spiritual refreshment.

Words and characters from other languages are clues to content. Figures sometimes form words from American Sign Language with their hands to emphasize the expressive power of gesture.

I want my work to be a place where one lingers and moves about slowly. I invite the viewer into a place of light, color and energy where I speak about human experience.