Marianne Moore, b. 1982

Artist Statement

My work comes from unconscious and conscious intuitive expression. Arriving from cathartic release or a deliberate, considered representation of feeling.

I play with the balance between ordered minimalism and chaos. Deliberately demarcated spaces, often wide areas of left-blank canvas, contain and structure my otherwise passionate trowel work. Creating heavy texture is important to me. I seek to walk the line between painting and sculpture. I am interested in bringing the painting to life, keeping it active, and vibrant, using layering and moulding to create height, so that the paint appears to rip out of the canvas (Yellow 2018). The furious scratching and trowelling contrasts with the refined linear boundaries between the painted and un-painted parts. The geometric lines and forms create order, yet inside there is a frenzied, disordered, wild, uncontrollability.  

My process is initiated by a need or compulsion, reflecting where I am emotionally at that time. In essence, my work is an externalisation of my inner life, partly self-portraits in abstract form. As such, as I have become clearer, and more boundaried, in my inner life, so have my works. Contrast The Sea, the Sea (2009) with Aphrodite (2021).

Themes of femininity and power infuse my work. Evolving from a tentative and messy exploration of my own femininity into a more commanding and celebrated assertion of womanhood. The baby pink Corset 1 (2018) speaks of tearing out of the confines of patriarchal life, yet it retains a soft, minimalist femininity. Following this, the more overt, The Limelight (2019), is an unashamed declaration of life in the spotlight, where women can be centre stage. The sharp geometric forms, the separation of what is to be left exposed from that which is to be covered, the linear and circular, tease and join, the traditions of femininity and masculinity.