Artist Statement

Mary is an artist, linguist and educator based in Essex, England and her creative practice combines two lifelong passions: languages and art.

Mary’s visual art work centres around memory and recollection of folk and childhood narratives; and re-presenting in-depth analysis of the language of storytelling, highlighting the under developed and unwritten roles of female characters within traditional tales. As a multilingual practitioner, Mary draws on her skills in French, Spanish and English to interrogate and find modern, contemporary relevance in storytelling texts and traditions from the Francophone, Hispanic and English speaking worlds.

Using experimental drawing and paper engineering techniques combined with traditional skills in printmaking, painting, bookbinding and calligraphy, Mary strives to sensitively represent diversity and to highlight the everywoman aspect of my visual artwork.

Following an Artist in Residence post with We are the Minories, Colchester in 2021, Mary is now completing an experimental spoken word and sound art project, funded by a bursary award from Firstsite Collectors’
Group in 2022.

An alumna of the University of Liverpool and a mature graduate of the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, Mary has travelled and worked in language and creative education overseas and in the UK since the mid 1990s and took the opportunity to launch her freelance career in 2009. In addition to developing her artistic practice, Mary devises and leads workshops, combining art and language,  for educational establishments, community organisations and independent organisations.

Past partnerships include The Guardian, House of Illustration, British Library and The Big Draw.

Mary is the founder and owner of Line and Language.
www.lineandlanguage.com
@lineandlanguage