Margaret Ryall

Artist Statement:

I want to evoke a sense of precarious beauty through a close inspection of the ordinary. Discarded artifacts, debris from a collapsed building, tools, household items or peeling layers of wallpaper or paint, affected by use or erosion, appeal to me. I see a duality in flowers of both fragility and tenacity  nature s and humanity s universal rhythms. My subject matter provides a timeline of preoccupations that consistently link nature and culture. I have been influenced by close interactions with the natural world and, at an early age, I developed an interest in pattern, ornamentation and design through craft. I like the surfaces of my work to represent the passage of time by providing layers of information built up with fragments  some muted or obscured, others highly visible. These surfaces provide traces of my process as well as content. I use photo transfer, painting, natural fiber papers and other ephemera in conjunction with acrylic mediums and gels. My process is immediate, intuitive and regulated by the act of creation. I begin with an idea, an experience, an image, or with certain materials. Then I build up the composition in layers, which provide the opportunity to respond both in the moment as well as slowly to the subject and my feelings about it. I usually have several bodies of work under development simultaneously. While each series is distinct in content, all investigate my awareness of time and how it affects our lives and the natural world. Permanence, temporality, change, memory, and loss  all these weave through my work.

Education

Continuing Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Anna Templeton Center (part time study) Workshops, local and national artists, personal study, 1995-2004

M. Ed., Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1985

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Selected Exhibitions:

2008