Marianne Moore, b. 1982

Artist Statement

At the essence of my work is the process of understanding myself in relation to the world: my agency, my boundaries, my ability to move and express myself freely. I draw on concepts of feminine divinity, mythology, pre-history and history to explore sovereignty.

Each painting is conceived as ideas and images which coalesce in my mind to form abstract representations that I need to bring to form. These images stem from my own emotions, body, experiences, and dreams, as well as my research and writing. In a finished work, I am releasing something from my soul as well as reflecting more broadly on women’s power in history, mythology, and religion.  

My preferred medium is oil paint because it is dense and slow to dry, which means it can be moulded and worked into contours that stand out from the canvas. Using a pallet knife, I enjoy sculpting large amounts of luscious paint into shapes that resemble necklines, spikes and explosions, appearing to rip out from the canvas. I use a brush to make clean smooth boundaries, and furious scratching with a pallet knife to keep the painting alive.

I am interested in creating borderlines between movement and stillness in my work. My compositions often contain both bold elements of generous energetic paint and areas of sparce bare canvas which are demarcated from each other by clear straight or circular lines. I am not so much interested in the space that these create, but by the interaction between the two jurisdictions.