#sparkchamber 110920 — Mary James Ketch
Anywhere and everywhere you look, there is beauty to behold. Today, #sparkchamber welcomes self-taught, narrative painter Mary James Ketch, who not only sees the magic in the everything, but captures it on canvas. “I like to combine visual images that we all recognize from our everyday lives, with more abstract painting. The result is something you seem to recognize, but also at the same time seems to be a bit dreamy or from another world.”
Mary released a series of new paintings in early October, inspired by the “time at home” brought on by the pandemic. In late April, after about a month of lockdown, she asked people to scroll through their phones and send her a photo they had taken in the last 30 days. Those photos were the inspiration for the collection.
“Initially I thought I would begin with all the interior scenes, but I actually started to feel a bit claustrophobic. So I just let my intuition lead me to what I wanted to paint next. There are a lot of dogs in the series. First of all, I was sent a lot of dogs. But also, if I was feeling low, I would paint one and it would make me feel better. I guess you could say they were my therapy dogs. But all the animals seemed so wise. While we were all so anxious, they were lying in the sun or taking a nap.”
Recognizing that we are all more alike than different and finding a personal connection to an everyday moment from which to shape a stirring story allows her art to reflect back the beauty of people’s lives — the core of her work. “I strive to create evocative paintings that are both intensely personal, and at the same time, timeless and universal.” The result is magnificent.
See and hear more at her website.
1.] Where do ideas come from?
Everywhere. It’s usually when different ideas come together. But I’m always aware of my physical responses to things. It “touches” me in some way. A color combination, an image, the process of painting itself sparks ideas and thoughts that keep me moving forward.
2.] What is the itch you are scratching?
It’s when I feel most fully alive. It’s a puzzle I need to solve that fully captures my attention and I can’t let it go.
3.] Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?
It’s my job. I’m neither an early bird nor a night owl. I am a bit slow to start. I have difficulty with transitions. But I take my coffee into the studio, turn on the music and pull out my desk calendar [paper is important here] and see what needs to be done. I am always eager to start a painting. I usually have several ideas brewing in me, and am less eager to finish them.
4.] How do you know when you are done?
I always think of the Jackson Pollack line, “How do you know when you’ve finished making love?” The act of painting is very much an intuitive process for me, and I just know.
