Mary Bogdan — Paintings, Assemblages, Prints

MARY BOGDAN paintings assemblages prints

Mary Bogdan paintings | assemblages | prints

ISBN 978-0-9782775-0-5

published by

HEUTEKUNST Š 2007 HeuteKunst and Mary Bogdan www.heutekunst.com www.marybogdan.com Graphic design by Crayon Design & Communication Inc., www.crayondesign.net.

Printed on demand by Lulu.com.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical (including photocopying, recording, and information storage or retrieval) without prior consent of the publishers.

I AM A GLEANER

In scrap heaps of abandoned or demolished buildings, alleyways and flea markets, I find rare treasure. Garbage. Remnants of wood and metal, books, boxes, old paintings, all that have been discarded are interesting to me.

My work deals with obsolescence. Each “found” object has out-lived its time and has therefore been scrapped. Dead. I rescue and assemble them with collected items from my own past. I sense the object’s energy guiding its reincarnation to a higher purpose. Art.

These artifacts that have chosen me, tell stories of where they have been, where I have been, where I am and where I am going. Stories of passion and anger, strength and weakness, love, hate and fear.

Revealing me to me.

M. BOGDAN

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PAINTINGS

The significance of the work lies both in the creative process as well as in the final piece. It’s the cycle that involves recycling, recovery (or discovery), manipulation, and the alteration of found objects. Modifications and transformations can affect a thing over time, and this is the celebration of the “found” object in art.

My works are a personal vision of self-discovery and a recognition of the continual reinvention of myself. It is the shaping of the self through the creation of art and the development of the art through self-construction. This ongoing and evolving cycle is the essence of my work.

spring street, new york, ny, 2002, 31"w x 49"h, combine painting: mixed media on found kitchen cabinet frame

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the secret of the making My painting comes from the GUT. These are representations of my “sacred places”, deep-seated desires, angers, frustrations, passions - all the emotions of the heart. They are my life history.

This piece was my first combine painting. Painted and assembled items on the back side of a stretched canvas.

Divided into four sections, each with its own character, but together they make a whole.

Included is a burnt book, domino set, match book, mail shoot, various dried flowers and leaves, piece of loosened asphalt found on the street, miniature playing cards, fuse, “scroll” key, dice, two rubber stamps: “CHARGE”, and 6 inch cast iron damper, dried tea bag, opened up carton box, and various printed material and maps.

the secret of the making, 2001, 60"w x 40"h, combine painting: mixed media on backside of stretched canvas

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On the inside of this cabinet I placed a child's toy tool set, which opens and closes as does the larger cabinet. I used very specific items that reminded me of my father. The very short, worn-down pencil (he was notorious for using short pencils); the spools of thread; the "A" alphabet block letter; the tailor's wooden ruler; the leveling tool; the picture of me with my family when I was 6 months old; the large paint brush as a flame nailed to a small christian prayer book inside a picture frame, all on top of a Rabbinical College diploma. Throughout are very emotional letters to my father, written as I painted. Words I could not speak to him directly.

I attached two large wooden thread spools as handles onto the cabinet doors and tied them with rope to keep it closed. It is about 4 feet high, the height of a child.

On the morning of his funeral, I wrote my father a letter on one of his patterns which I’d already painted on sometime earlier, because I wanted to give him something and leave something with him. I wrote on it as I cried and my tears are there, too. I folded it and closed it up and tied it up with rope and left it with him. My hands on his patterns. It was buried with him.

myFather/myself: ode to alojz This

piece is a homage to my father, who was the greatest influence in my early childhood. I was his “son�. This gave me carteblanche to be all I could be. It was clear that as a girl I could do anything, same as a boy.

This was a very profound wisdom on his part, remember this was the 1950's, before feminism. I helped him build extra rooms to our house and helped him make his own wine every autumn. He didn't speak very much, so our relationship was an intuitive dialog. He was a very gentle man, but with many internal demons...

This combine painting is about him and me and our family history... it was made just before his death when I was obsessed with his journey, as he had been sick for 9 long years and his death was an extremely slow process...

I found an old-fashioned wooden key cabinet, possibly from a hotel or apartment building, at a Salvation Army store. I worked on it, using my father's dress patterns that he'd made as a tailor. There had been thousands of them in the garage and in the basement where he used to work. After his death, I took only a few, carefully chosen pieces from his collection.

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myFather/myself: ode to alojz, 2003, 43"w x 43.5"h x 5"d open; combine painting: mixed media on a wooden key cabinet

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triptych hardedge The backside is a very “hardedge� painting by an anonymous artist. I bought these three canvases together for $5.00, at a flea market located in a back lane of Plateau Mont Royal (St Viater and Park Ave) in Montreal.

I found this very old triptych hardedge painting intriguing. I loved the way the canvases were stretched at the back and it inspired me with its flowing shapes, so I painted very organically on the backside of it using soft earth tones, in contrast to the bright primary colors on the other side.

Rebel much?

triptych hardedge, 2002, 58"w x 39.25"h, mixed media painting on back side of 3 previouslyused (by another artist) canvases

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between two horizontal strokes, 2002, 21.5"w x 16.5"h, mixed media painting on back side of previously-used (by another artist) canvas

Combine Paintings: I paint with intense spirituality and intuition. This series has come about with the discovery of old, discarded paintings found on the streets or in the garbage or at flea markets. I paint furiously over them, picking up on the energy left behind.

Often, I turn these found/discarded canvases around, paint on the back sides, exposing the

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wood frame. These canvases live again because they have given me their inspiration. Their energy.

They feed me. By working on other artist’s thrownaway paintings, I am one with all art and all artists. I am the continuation, the circle. I submerge myself in the flow of energy that is art.

we are seeking leaders, 2002, 38"w x 38"h, mixed media painting on back side of previously-used (by another artist) canvas

open door, 2002, 31.25"w x 33"h, mixed media painting on back side of previously-used (by another artist) canvas

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espace, 2002, 21.75"w x 15"h, mixed media painting on backside of previously-used (by another artist) canvas

What is interesting is this idea of the personal found object rather than the simple random selection of the mundane or utilitarian.

Recycling is the way to go for our western materialistic civilization! I love the idea of incorporating our environment into the work. There is beauty in everything and I put it together so that the viewer can see it. I think that’s what makes art compelling. It’s about showing something that is very human and vulnerable in all of us, and not having too much fear about exposing it.

YES, it’s the ability to create while “in the

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zone” (esoragoto), and then after some time, being able to “read” your own work and write about it in order to understand yourself and your own personal process better. That is awareness on a higher level. Art is a vehicle to bring you there.

It is for me.

YES, the zone, or groove. The best place to create from... And, YES, it’s important to reflect on one’s own work and the growth that results... and then, to see an observer make a connection on their own journey, using your work as another guide. That is a gift!

literal passion, 2002, 20"w x 16"h, mixed media painting on backside of previouslyused (by another artist) canvas

silence III, 2002, 28.75"w x 21.5"h, mixed media painting on backside of previously-used (by another artist) canvas

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m: self portrait, 2001, 60"w x 40"h, combine painting: mixed media on canvas

My images are personal to me, a deep search for myself, my unexposed innards. My unexplored worlds, unsaid words, unexpressed love, hidden angers. These are all expressed here on canvas. I work feverishly and furiously to express in my art that which I cannot express in my life. Here I have carte-blanche to be and be me. No judgments, no

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negatives, no problemo. I am. I exist. I am passionate. Me. I see from the inside out, bringing with me the hidden parts of me, the unexpressed, the unchallenged, the weak, the strong, the hates and the loves. Me. Sacred Places.

cross & crown, 2001, 60"w x 40"h, mixed media painting on canvas books, music & cafĂŠ, 2001, 48"w x 30"h, mixed media painting on both sides of corplast

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content, 2001, 48"w x 38"h, mixed media painting on previously-used (by another artist) canvas

I collect enormous amounts of paper, boxes, cardboard, block letters, tissue paper, pattern paper, etc. I paint on them individually and in groupings, and then use them in my larger works, bringing together different textures, feelings, colors

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etc, into one complex world containing and holding the different parts. Fragmented. This is ME.

muze 1,2,3 I was

highly inspired by the primordial markings on the wrapping paper from The Museum of The Romanian Peasant (Muzeul Taranului Român) in Bucharest, given to me by my parents-in-law, who had purchased gifts for us there.

Romania had been my in-laws’ childhood home and their visit back a few years ago had been their first since they and their entire families had been deported to the camps during the war.

They are survivors of the holocaust.

muze 1, 2000, 14"w x 11"h, mixed media painting on masonite board muze 2, 2000, 14"w x 11"h, mixed media painting on masonite board muze 3, 2000, 14"w x 11"h, mixed media painting on masonite board

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inspirĂŠ par la vie / inspired by life II, 2002, 55"w x 48"h, mixed media painting on lamp-shade material

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transform, 2001, 60"w x 40"h, mixed media painting on canvas

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My heroes are Tapies, ClavĂŠ, Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Nevelson, and George Herms.

Inspirations to me. My bible studies. Their influences are great, apparent in my language, I speak the same language as they do. I express myself with found objects, paper, used and

unused. Thrown out, given to me. Retrieved from many places in my life. They tell stories of where they have been, where I have been, where I am, and where I am going.

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19h-7h I, 2001, 60"w x 26.5"h, mixed media painting on masonite board

ground zero / mortification, 2002, 60"w x 48"h, mixed media painting on previously-used (by another artist) canvas

ground zero / mortification This large painting commemorates the falling of the Twin Towers in September 2001. Upon visiting Ground Zero a few months after the disaster, I was very moved by the energy of the area.

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I used US flags that I tore up and painted on and later assembled onto an old, previously-used canvas which had been purchased from another artist, who had abandoned painting and sold me all her old, used canvases. This was one of them.

19h-7h II, 2001, 30"w x 24"h, mixed media painting on masonite board

7h, 2001, 30"w x 24"h, mixed media painting on masonite board

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awareness This was one of my first large paintings

that doesn’t respect boundaries. The handwriting is my own. Words of love and encouragement to myself. Intimate letters of understanding and openness to myself.

Included we see a blue bed sheet, a favorite of mine, used for many years until it began to rip and was not useable on the bed anymore. I tried many times, on different occasions, to throw it in the garbage. I could not. I kept it for quite a while afterwards and it eventually found its final home here. The fabric is so soft and luscious that it has always been very important to me. The color is divine.

I incorporated also, a pair of old summer pants I used to wear when gardening. I wore them well after they had ripped. Again, in blue.

I found the crotch area (opened zipper) very important as the central image. And I named this painting “awareness”, because it was the very last word written and it signaled its completion... or beginning.

I find the earth colors highly powerful against the sky (spiritual) blue. Great contrast and combination. Also included are road maps and my father’s old dress patterns, which I had painted on.

It hangs in my bedroom.

awareness, 2003, 83” w x 70” h, combine/mixed media painting on lamp-shade material.

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unveiling I collect and organize and create new worlds with the objects I have amassed. They come together in my work as members of a family... all different personalities but together they create a vision.

Each painting is unique.

In Unveiling, I have used an old Canada Post carrier bag as my canvas and starting point, with layers and layers of transparent papers, colored tissue papers and an old map.

Together they symbolize that which is fleeting... the utter fragility of life (and death).

Unveiling, as well as Urbania, were created in the middle of a forest, where I had been working all day, and so I incorporated that which was around me on the ground... dried leaves, and above me... the clouds.

The overall shape also reminds us of a body with arms stretched out...

Created at a time just before my father’s death.

unveiling, 2003, 39.5"w x 50"h, mixed media painting in layers

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urbania In this painting, I have used an old cloth sack (a Bemis Seamless, extra heavy) as my canvas and starting point, with layers and layers of transparent papers, colored tissue papers (reading mysterious, elusive, the unexpected, the unveiling, secrets and surprises), japanese parchment, an old map, graph paper, my father’s pattern paper, envelope with dried leaves in it, marked “urbania”.

Here I incorporated dried leaves and clouds, that which I found below me and above me as I worked outdoors, in the middle of a forest in the eastern townships of Quebec.

Both Urbania and Unveiling were created at a time just before my father’s death.

urbania, 2003, 37"w x 50"h, mixed media painting in layers

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heritage 1,2,3 This series of

paintings are expressions of myself through influences of my past, inspired by my father and my father-in-law – an influence and a tribute. Both passed away in the same year (2004) and it forced me to introspect about my life. These are subconscious elements that I have chosen in the process of creating these pieces, realizing afterwards that there are some very literal associations that go beyond symbolism. For example, tools: Jesus as carpenter, taught by his father, as I was taught by my own father; tools that I use to make my art... my assemblage.

Other symbols are: religious, jewish/christian heritage; patterns made by my father.

Heritage: an inheritance, cultural traditions, historical buildings, god's chosen people or christian church.

heritage 1, 2, 3, 2004, approx.

55"h x 18"w each, mixed media painting in layers

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fedex crusade, 2003, 20.5"w x 15.5"h, mixed media painting on an opened fedex envelope

fedex crusade This is one of a series of pieces I did

on opened-up FedEx envelopes, sent to me by various people and places. I thought they were beautiful. Being a graphic designer by profession, I have great appreciation for excellent branding.

These envelopes inspired me and became my canvases...

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I incorporated here a wine bottle label with sash; kraft paper wrapping from a great art book called ClavĂŠ Sculpteur that I had purchased; map swatch; graph tissue paper; very old religious map; crusade sticker; Frida movie ticket stub; polka dot wallpaper swatch...

I keep everything, and use them in my work.

They are a part of me and they are me...

spirale, 2003, 22.5"w x 14"h, mixed media painting on a double page spread from inside spirale magazine recueil, 2003, 18.5"w x 12.5"h, mixed media painting on a double page spread from inside a book

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GAP/The Holy Bible, 2003, 25"w x 28”h

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GAP series Mixed

media on ripped open GAP shopping bags.

I found myself obsessed by discarded GAP shopping bags, but not because I was shopping there, but because I began seeing them in garbage piles all over the place, and lots of times containing garbage, too. These bags hold a great fascination for me, great job in marketing (I guess millions of dollars spent), they are totally unmistakable.

The “fashionable” carry them on the streets as an emblem of youth and style, but when they lie all crumpled up and thrown away in the garbage they seem abandoned and sad. I love them. The blue and white is so spiritual, so clean, so simple. I paint on them feverishly as they are a brilliant vessel that holds great energy and excitement for me.

I continue to pick them up whenever I see one. I am still collecting them.

GAP 1, 2003, 19"w x 26”h GAP/Super Open Cab, 2003, 31"w x 25”h GAP 2, 2003, 26"w x 27”h

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Playing Battle Dress Up The process of reparenting

my inner child becomes more complex as the adult emerges and the influences of a hostile global and social environment invade the innocence of childhood, thereby exposing us...

Linking female "Dress Up" and male "Battle Dress", it's a balancing of my own feminine/masculine energies, and the confusion of our times.

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Young males going into the military to become soldiers (to become "men"), not always realizing fully (or deeply) what that means. Youths going off, carrying with them their sensitive innards. Here we see it illustrated in a very graphic way, emotions and fear, childlike qualities, playfulness, feminine energies....

This piece contains: 4 West German military duffel bags from the 1960's, ripped wide open; my father's "Made in Germany" measuring tape (he was a tailor); newspaper page torn out from "The Standard", Montreal, Nov 27, 1926; letters in a bag; dictionary page, containing the words: "fundamentalism", "funeral'; dried white wildflowers; dead leaves; wire mesh; string;

burlap; opened silk purse; fruit mesh bag; swatch of USA flag; pink lace; carbon paper (in my sisters handwriting) including words "bushel for bushel"; red ribbon; oil can "3-in-1"; cord; book of matches; newspaper page from "The Shawinigan Standard", Nov 14, 1945; polish letter from Warsaw, Poland written Nov 18, 1945.

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Playing Battle Dress Up, 2005, 8.75ft h x 16.5ft w, combine painting, mixed media on military tent liner. Tent liner (can be expanded to 27ft wide), 4-1960's West German military duffel bags opened, approx.

45"h x 28"w each.

Madonna&Child.no.2, nos.1,3,4,5,6,7, 2005, 31"w x 21.5"h, mixed media on hand made paper.

Madonna&Child Works on paper, mixed media on hand made paper.

This subject and the whole series (of seven), came about subconsciously when I realized all of the individual pieces in this first series on paper, possessed a recurring theme, Madonna & Child from master paintings. When casually asked by my husband which one was I, Madonna? OR Child?, I should have perhaps said Madonna (mother/woman), but instead, I realized that in fact, I had identified more with the child in each

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of these pieces. I was the child. This was the catalyst which started me thinking about what was going on, and I began a new series (of prints this time) that also touches this theme, but this time I brought in a deeper understanding, which included myself both as mother and (inner) child.

I completed a series of ten prints, called Madonna&Child OR Reparenting My Inner Child (series 1), and later a second series of ten (series 2). Also in the works, is a video on the subject.

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menagerie1. gone with the wind / morning prayers

menagerie A diverse or miscellaneous group.

2005, 20�w x 14�h, mixed media on hand made Himalayan paper. Series of ten.

menagerie3. whistler / ein

menagerie4. maraschino cherries / missionnaires

menagerie5. pernin’s universal phonography / manon lescaut

menagerie6. lord byron / mathematical tables

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menagerie2. the rival churches / heart hymns

menagerie7. spectacles / après la communion

menagerie8. vatican council / sunshine follows rain

menagerie9. made in nepal / none but christ

menagerie10. loi / livre mystique

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ASSEMBLAGES

Assemblage has been the discovery of my life. It fits me like a glove.

Amazingly, I had been collecting garbage, found objects, flea market finds, etc, for decades. Now I know what they have been for. ART. All my special items have had an incredible effect on me.

I express myself with found objects – usually old, used and thrown out. I find them in the garbage and I rescue them.

They may be objects that are given to me or old objects from many places in my life. I assemble them into pieces of art.

They tell stories of where they have been, where I have been, where I am, and where I am going. My assemblages are personal to me, a deep search for myself, my unexposed innards. My unexplored worlds, unsaid words, unexpressed love, hidden angers.

I collect an enormous amount of used papers, wooden boxes, block letters, wooden frames, brushes, metal parts, small prayer books, cigar boxes, pattern paper, etc. I may paint on them and then use them in my assemblages, bringing together different textures, feelings, and colors into one complex world containing and holding the different parts.

Fragmented. This is ME.

view from cyclops, 2003, 24"w x 22"h x 21"d, assemblage

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avmor tie Avmor Collection,

commissioned assemblage.

I started out with a pure, white silk tie, which I buried in the ground in my own garden during the spring thaw. It became soiled and weathered after just a few days. Later, into the tie lining, I attached a heavy, braided yellow rope which I unfurled into willowy wisps of thread to appear as tentacles or roots of a tree reaching out to a distance of 14 feet.

I then nailed the tie to an old, worn-out, wooden architectural moulding. I inserted a printer’s metal block letter “A” into the tie and rope, and tied it with a saffron twine which hangs down and holds a second letter “M”.

All the elements in this work came from the Avmor building.

On permanent exhibition at the Avmor Collection, Montreal.

avmor tie, 2005, 5"w x 14ft h x 3"d, assemblage

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m morrow Avmor Collection,

commissioned assemblage.

Almost all of the items that make up this assemblage were collected from the building that is the “Avmor Museum”, a private museum that houses hundreds of pieces of art, commissioned to commemorate this more than 200 year old building in historic Old Montreal.

The museum’s creator, M Morrow, commissioned me to do an assemblage. I agreed, on the condition that I use items from his own collection. He was happy to oblige and most of the elements in this piece were graciously given to me by him... fragments of his own collection of “found” objects.

I worked on this piece in situ as the building’s energy fed me.

This assemblage portrays the age of the building, its grand architecture and its museum of art.

I named it after it’s owner, M Morrow. It reminds me so much of him running up and down the old stairways in excitement and anticipation of a new acquisition. He had just turned 80.

On permanent exhibition at the Avmor Collection, Montreal.

m morrow, 2005, 28"w x 53"h x 23"d, assemblage

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Every one of my assemblages is a One Of A Kind. I am a “glaneuse”, a gleaner. Using remnants of wood, metal, boxes, old paintings and other objects that thought they were surely destined for the landfill get a new life in my reincarnated reconstructions, to which I add my own objects – past or present.

I work with obsolescence.

Usually, these elements which make up my assemblages are unique. There is not another of its kind. Each found piece has out-lived its time and has therefore been thrown out by its original owner. Because I rescue them, they live again in my art. I often let the materials that I’ve very carefully chosen and collected dictate the creation, so I always incorporate chance finds into the ongoing and organic process that is my art.

grotesque reflection, 2003, 10.5"w x 31.5"h x 8.5"d, assemblage

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from birth to reset The whole life

process, my life process... moving towards spirituality. To peace. To reset.

Incarnation, the hope of starting all over again with the absorbed knowledge of the previous life. This is the hope to continue on the road, not to begin again into the struggle, but to move onwards from a continuing point.

This is the hope...

To reset to zero.

solar plexus, 2003, 8"w x 55"h x 9"d, assemblage

from birth to reset, 2002, 31.5"w x 9"h x 4"d, assemblage

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scroll/reset Religion, the

meaning of life. Spirituality as opposed to religion. These are the themes of many of my pieces including this one. The New Testament with a rusty nail through it. FIT FOR LIFE diet book torn page by page and inserted one by one into a wooden box. The whole book stuffed as I had often stuffed myself.

scroll/reset, 2001, 19"w x 14.5"h x 6"d, assemblage

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mary: self-portrait One of the first

assemblages that I made. The weight of the world sits on my shoulders, but I want to flee, on wheels...

mary: self-portrait, 2001, 10""w x 23.5""h x 9""d, assemblage

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the spiritual path, 2001, 23"w x 35"h x 6"d, assemblage

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armed & dangerous, 2001, 12"w x 30"h x 7"d, assemblage

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for giunta One day, in the garbage heaps I usually

search out, I found this wonderful old wooden box. I picked it up and it sat in my studio basement for months, waiting to be used, right next to my Joseph Giunta poster, from the exhibition that I had seen a few months earlier.

I began to work in this fabulous box, and created this inner world inside it, never noticing that the name and address of its previous owner were written on the front of the box.

After having completed and shown this assemblage to my teacher and mentor, Vicki Tansey, to my surprise, she read the name on the

packing slip on the front of the box: “JOSEPH GIUNTA”. I gasped!

It was then that I discovered that the artist’s last home before he died was not far from my own, and that I had inadvertently picked up personal items from his studio that had been discarded by the inheritors of his estate.

Now I had inherited his old paint box. And continued the art of assemblage. I felt as though I had been chosen to continue in his footsteps.

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for giunta, 2002, 18.75"w x 23"h x 3"d closed, assemblage

Tide Box series I began noticing

I fell in love with them.

They spoke to me of wash day Mondays, motherhood, family, cleanliness (is next to godliness).

Andy Warhol with a twist...

I held on to them for a long while, enjoying their beauty. I started to paint them, giving them different personalities, different interiors.

Each Tide box contains a smaller box/bag inside, way at the bottom. A precious gift, a secret hiding place...

But, this is all a GREAT SEDUCTION. Yes, making a “cultural icon” from something that is a destructive force, is alarming and so my vision of these tide boxes has evoked and touched something in all of us. something beyond what was originally intended... This is art... ...And ART IS THE CONSCIENCE OF HUMANITY. It is the responsibility of the artist to provoke and engage.

vagrant TIDE boxes all over the city (Montreal), in the recycle bins and in the garbage on Recycle Bin Day and/or Garbage Day. They stood out so vividly among the green plastic bin containers and the garbage bags thrown out onto the streets of our neighborhoods. They were so compelling to me, saying: “TAKE ME HOME”. I stopped my car at every opportunity to pick them up, no matter where I was going.

They were usually in perfect condition and empty. These boxes are very sturdy, having to hold all our laundry detergent for generations, never changing its look very much, but just an upgrading of graphics now and then over the years. They were first introduced in 1946.

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TideRed, TideYellow, TideBlack, 2003, 12.125”h x 11.5”w x 6.5”d, mixed media on abandoned Tide laundry detergent box

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OutdoorAssemblage3, 2005, 98"w x 71"h x 30"d, assemblage (outdoor & temporary)

OutdoorAssemblage series These outdoor

assemblages were created in my garden as temporary installations. They were created as fantasies and fun art pieces that I will dismantle in

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time and the component parts will possibly be reassembled to make new assemblage works during another season.

OutdoorAssemblage2, 2005, 42"w x 78"h x 36"d, assemblage (outdoor & temporary)

OutdoorAssemblage1, 2005, 36"w x 74"h x 14"d, assemblage (outdoor & temporary)

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myFather/myself, nos.1-10, 2004, 14"w x 20"h, giclée print on acid-free watercolor paper, edition of 25.

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PRINTS

myFather/myself Limited Edition Prints. This series of ten images, resonating the complex relationship between my father and myself, was created just after his death in 2004. Using images and symbols that represent him and/or me woven together to make one.

Natural colors of earth tones – ochre and brown; the word “elusive”; layers; shades of blue; catholic calendar 1934 june; paint brushes; upside down man in hat; dragon; jesus upside down; father's patterns hand drawn from the early 1980's, painted over by me; letter from Poland to Shawinigan, Quebec, dated the year 1945; solitary paintbrush like a flame; my old drawings of clouds; large green leaf symbolizing growth and life; lines in blood red; fragile ribbon; blue graph paper.

As usual, I incorporate “found” objects and combine color and texture to create strong, yet subtle imagery.

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letters-in-a-book Limited Edition Prints. A series of ten images revealing layers of time & place, hope & faith, science & religion. Contemplation and questioning, at a time of grief for my father’s death.

Letters-in-a-book includes layers of old letters found in a thrift shop, written between Oct. 1945 and July 1946, sent from family members in Warsaw, Poland to kin in Shawinigan, Quebec. These letters convey post-WWII life in, then occupied, Poland, at a time and place that reminds me of my father as a young man from this part of the world, at his most vital time in life.

Also included are personal letters sent to me by my husband.

These handwritten and typed letters are juxtaposed with two old books. One is a book of ancient & modern “Hymns” of the Church of St James The Apostle and the other is “EOS, Or the Wider Aspects of Cosmogony*” by J. H. Jeans.

Books that represent my Roman Catholic, religious upbringing while at the same time further reflecting my own personal search for meaning at a very contemplative time in my life.

“The universe which we study with such care may be a dream, and we brain-cells in the mind of the dreamer.”

*cosmogony 1. cos·mog·o·ny. A specific theory or model of the origin and evolution of the universe.

2. cosmogony. n : the branch of astrophysics that studies the origin and evolution and structure of the universe, one such theory can be found in Genesis.

letters-in-a-book, nos.1-10, 2004, 14"w x 20"h, giclée print on acid-free watercolor paper, edition of 25.

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artistFantasy Limited Edition Prints.

Paint brush as a flame; color palette; handwritten letters from Poland from 1945; father's patterns in natural kraft color; maps; 360 degree navigation circle; words: “mysterious”, “elusive”, “the siren holds the key for she has the gift”, “a shimmer of something mysterious”; green paint brush; white pages with names and numbers; clouds from an old drawing of mine; three chalk pencils green pink orange; my old agenda book; checkerboard; book: “eos, or the wider aspects of cosmogony by j.h. jeans”; word find game; polka dots; crayons in a row; rainbow spectrum; earth solarized; bmw logo; l'econome newspaper; oil pastels; circular globe; rows of used paint brushes; “dis moi ce que tu es”: tell me what you are; north symbol; general hymns; us flag; Da Vinci's man; pencil...

Ten different images in this series.

artistFantasy, nos.1-10, 2004, 14"w x 20"h, giclée print on acid-free watercolor paper, edition of 25.

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gapBag Limited Edition Prints.

Based on a "GAP" Shopping Bag, series of 10 images, in an edition of 25.

gapBag, nos1-10, 2004, 14"w x 20"h, giclĂŠe print on acid-free watercolor paper, edition of 25.

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Madonna&Child OR Reparenting My Inner Child, series1 Limited Edition Prints. In this series, I incorporated my interest in old masters’ paintings (Botticelli, Raphael, Durer, etc) of the Madonna & Child, with my deep connection to and ongoing process of reparenting my own “Inner Child”.

These are self-portraits. I am both the MOTHER and the CHILD. It is fascinating on many levels: the eternal connection of myself and art, and to the great masters who have left there historic mark; the religious theme of the Virgin Mary and Christ, echoing my very strict roman catholic upbringing.

My images are both playful and disarming and include my rebel inner child, who screams out to be heard, to be seen, to be recognized and appreciated... and to be loved...

Ten different images in this series.

Madonna&Child OR Reparenting my Inner Child, series1, no.2, nos.1,3,4,5, 6,7,8,9,10, 2005, 24"w x 20"h, giclée print on acid-free watercolor paper, edition of 25.

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Madonna&Child OR Reparenting My Inner

Limited Edition Prints. I revisited this theme and found that there was a more peaceful feel to the imagery. I’m more at ease with the mother and child. There’s more of an integration, a closeness now of the child to the mother.

Maybe I’m becoming calmer, more at ease with myself, more accepting of myself with all my intense feelings and confusions.

Knowing that after the lows there will be a high, a brighter day, and easier way. Things will work out for the best in the end. I’m being taken care of by the loving arms of the universe. I am it’s child.

Ten different images in this series.

Child, series2

Madonna&Child OR Reparenting my Inner Child, series2, nos.1-10, 2005, 21"w x 21"h, giclée print on acid-free watercolor paper, ed/25.

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RoadwaysOfLife

Limited Edition Prints.

A series I created at the time of my father's death. It’s a roadmap and tribute to our complex relationship, a layering of his old patterns and my painting. It’s about legacy, transformations in time and a celebration of generations.

Incorporating old clothing patterns that my late father had made over a period of many decades as a tailor, which my mother had given to me after his death.

There were literally thousands of these patterns left behind, from which I chose to keep only a few.

Eight different images in this series.

RoadwaysOfLife, no.5, nos.1,2,3,4, 6,7,7.1, 2004, 31"w x 20"h, giclée print on acid-free watercolor paper, edition of 25.

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Mary Bogdan paintings | assemblages | prints

published by

HEUTEKUNST www.heutekunst.com