“I am an abstract painter but my work is inspired by many sources. I paint what I encounter in my life. Sometimes an inspiration comes in the form of physical, even medical events; sometimes political; or sometimes simply an everyday life experience. I react to occurrences in my world.”
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“In 1987 I was painting on the studio wall in my NYC Chelsea loft. The subject was something that had caught my eye out my window: the complimentary colors of a green fire escape against the red bricks of an historic carriage house. I had a sketch on my canvas. When I returned a few days later and turned to look across the street—the building had been painted white and they were painting the fire escape black.”
Corona Virus 19 [COVID]
“The Covid epidemic affected every one of us. As artists, we responded in sometimes unusal ways. I heard many people say they were doing something different than their normal studio work habits. I found myself jotting down words about the epidemic and it led to a challege to find the whole alphabet. Two small paintings were created at that time.”
“Heartfelt response to my husband’s heart attack in 2021. I continued the theme for our annual small works exhibit with 6 x 6 inch pieces.”
“When it was clear, in 2013, that my father was dying, I prepared to travel out of state, hopefully in time to see him. Before I left I felt compelled to express my feelings in artwork. I unrolled a big canvas on the floor of my studio and just began to paint. It was totally stream of consciousness. I didn’t want black but wanted a dark color: purple. I thought about the various struggles we’d had and my relief that we had resolved our differences enough to enjoy his final years. The painting just poured out.”
“Just an observation on a relationship.”
Political
“A trio of paintings in 2016 were a direct response to the 2016 presidential election.
An original poem accompanies “Bruise”. It is an ekphrastic piece describing the painting itself—and with reference for color from an actual bruise on my arm.”
BRUISE, November 2016
November bruise
Emerging out,
November surprise
Whisper and shout—
Phtalo, Napthal, Dioxazine bruise.
Flaring tempers,
Unabashed,
Raw defense
At our expense—
Phtalo, Napthal, Dioxazine bruise.
Choices / sides,
Teflon disguise,
Hopes, desires,
Dashed and dumped,
Discolored and battered,
Bumped and trumped,
Treatment now depends on us.
—MM
9/11 Ten Years Later…Response and Reflection
“In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, I had made a series of pastel drawings as a response to that catastrophic event. Ten years later, a project took shape to match text to the drawings…a Creative Writing Workshop was held at Drew University to explore personal memory, as well as students’ responses to public events.
I decided to explore my own feelings in retrospect with new work. The new paintings seemed to express a desire for strength, resilience, and resolve.”
“This painting developed in a way completely converse to my spontaneous process. I was driving on a Sunday morning over the hills of the Catskills, playing music on my car radio; just cruising along heading back to my studio with the New York TImes. A thought—and an image—came into my mind so clearly and fully developed. I went directly home and tacked a very large piece of cotton duck canvas to my wall, drew the perspective lines of the wonderful cornfield outside my windows. Besides the large painting, I continued the theme in many small pieces.”
“When it was exhibited 3 years later in a solo show in Ohio, my great niece, who was 3 years old, chose it as her favorite because, she said it “had fairies in it”. (In the eye of the beholder)”
“En Plein Air charcoal sketch done in the middle of a cornfield outside my studio and further developed in the studio.”
“By 1987, I had been a resident of Manhattan for almost twenty years and the overriding effect of grey concrete was becoming waring. One day I just started painting green. I was not nostalgic though I believe my father interpreted my title that way. I was simply starved for green and grass. Somehow a little heart appeared. I thought of it as a needed relief from all the green color but to some it added to the nostalgic theory.
A number of years later, when we bought our upstate property, one window had a strikingly similar composition and, in fall, a little red tree stood in that very spot.”
“A series of paintings resulting from a 2014 addiction to the online game Candy Crush.”
“In 1983 my studio was a loft on west 14th Street in NYC. I had a 5 x 6’ canvas on the easel and was painting in the open format floor-through space. I had an 8’ skylight and could see the Empire State Building. My dear musician friend was in the loft and on a long phone conversation with his musical partner who he accompanied and arranged for. They had a close relationship and the conversation was about a personal problem. It began to seep into my consciousness; it continued, and continued. I changed the title of my painting since it had absorbed the energy of the event.”
