Hello!
Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to visit my site.
Fun Fact ... Did you know I used to be an art teacher? I also used to write a blog for parents, teachers, and caregivers of young children called Pink and Green Mama. I spend my time here now, making art in my studio and sharing my work with the world, but I would like to invite you to look at my Art Lesson Ebooks in my shop if you have young children in your life and want to share art and creative experiences with them. They are packed with all kinds of hands-on ways you can CREATE, PLAY, and EXPLORE with them!
xoxo MaryLea
I am so excited to announce our summer show this year. I'm showing at Sunriver Resort Lodge in the Betty Gray Gallery with two of my dear friends, Karen Ruane and JM Brodrick. The exhibit will run from July 22, 2017- September 9, 2017. The Opening reception will be held 4:30-6pm on Saturday July 22. If you'll be in the area this summer, I hope you'll stop by.
I was so happy to have my family in town for the show opening this year! So grateful for their love and support.
This was my third year displaying art for Simplicity Homes as their featured artist in their tour home for the COBA Tour of Homes. This year's model was located in the new Shevlin Landing Neighborhood near Shevlin Park in Bend. This year's designer Karrie Bomstad of Staging Spaces and Design was so amazing to work with. She did such a great job with the house and my paintings went perfectly with her accessories. We got a lot of people through the house this year and it was really fun to see and hear their reactions to the floor plan, artwork and incredible design work.
This is part of my Map Series. I titled this painting, "Speak Your Truth. Always." My abstract maps are meant to explore our relationships between physical place, connection, belonging, and our collective personal journeys. I'm exploring color, texture, and line. I'm focusing on the interplay of "positive" and "negative" space as I reflect on my own positive and negative growth experiences from the past few years. The cracks are how the light gets in. I'm using these maps as a form of art therapy to explore living more simply while celebrating nature, color, texture, and line. This particular map was painted in the days leading up to the election while I was filled with optimism and excitement for my daughters and the generations of women that came before me, to see our first woman President elected. I finished this map on election night, heartbroken, angry and numb. I turned off the television as the election results started coming in; filling a televised map with red. I escaped to my studio to paint and sort through my feelings. I cried. My tears are in this painting.
Please do not numb out. Now is the time to speak up for those who do not have a voice. Speaking the truth, and speaking up for others can be scary but silence is more frightening. We must speak our truth and defy the ignorant voice in the White House. He is not my President. He does not stand for what I believe in. I believe in human rights. I believe in climate science. I am a citizen of the planet. I believe the World needs more LOVE, LIGHT and TRUTH right now. Do not accept alternative facts. Do not give in.
Resist and speak your Truth.
“Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind even if you are a minority of one. The truth is still the truth.” – Mohatma Gandhi
I've spent November working on two new Maps while reflecting on our greatly divided country. It breaks my heart to see the news. The hear the hate in our President elect's heart, if he even has one. I think it may be two sizes two small. In a nation divided, I'm painting my own maps. Trying to process what is happening around me. While I heal my broken heart, I will finish my own maps and work on more of my LOVE Wins paintings so I can spread more love in this broken corner of the world.
Charlie is all ready for Halloween, he's dressed up as a beanie boo!
I've been a busy bee painting and getting ready for my November show at Sotheby's. Charlie, one of my studio cats, has been super helpful sitting a little too close to my wet paintings and supervising each brush stroke. Every once in a while he pounces on my brush and ends up with rainbow paws or highlights! Silly boy. This piece was really fun to paint.
"The Color ofJoy" Map Series # 16 (SOLD)
Super excited that my painting "Map of My Heart" SOLD at my Natural Edge show and found her forever home here in Bend. She's my favorite but don't tell the other paintings, I don't want them to get jealous.
"Map of My Heart" SOLD 36'x36', 2016.
I'm so excited about my upcoming show at Natural Edge Furniture in Bend.
“Layers & Edges” Art show will have it's opening reception this Friday, July 29th from 5-7 pm at Natural Edge Furniture (135 NE Norton Ave in the Maker’s District in Bend.)
Drinks, Food, Music, and all new art by MaryLea Harris will be on display.
Plus gorgeous furniture made here in Bend! Win. win.
The show will be up through late September.
The reception on Friday will have a free hands on craft (maker station) for the kids. Because I have a background in arts education, I enjoy providing hands on art opportunities for kids at my art shows. Sharing art experiences with our children is such a great way to make memories. The lack of arts programs in our public schools makes exposing kids to local artists, art shows, and cultural events even more important. I was an elementary art teacher before I decided to focus on my art career, I have a passion for sharing the arts with kids and developing their taste for art museums and cultural institutions.
A sneak peek at my Natural Edge Furniture Show in Bend...now thru September in the Maker's District.
Hard at work installing my work at Natural Edge earlier this month!
"Wherever You Are" 2016, MaryLea Harris 48" x 60"
Artist's Statement from my latest solo show:
Local contemporary artist, MaryLea Harris, specializes in mixed media and painting. Her whimsical and colorful images of leaves and trees are outlined in creams and whites to analogize the interplay between positives and negatives in space and life. Her abstract work features brightly colored backgrounds created by layering paint and scraping it away with disposable plastic gift cards. While useful tools, the plastic cards also symbolize our consumer-driven society polluted with man-made waste. From this ironic use of waste comes her light-filled and whimsical imagery, emphasizing the beauty of “nature in its still state. Her latest Map Series is meant to explore our relationship between physical place, connection, belonging, and our collective personal journeys.
"Summer Pond" 2016, MaryLea Harris 48" x 60"
The Journey Home by MaryLea Harris, 2016
The Tour of Homes was a huge success with tons of foot traffic both tour weekends. The Simplicity Model in Shevlin Estates that I displayed my painting in won 7 out of 8 awards in it's category. You can view photos of the home here.
The feedback about my painting, "The Journey Home" has been very positive and I'm honored to have been asked to participate again this year.
This is the largest painting in my new Map Series so far. With the map series I'm exploring our relationships with physical place, connection, belonging, and our collective personal journeys. You can find more of my map series and watch it evolve on Instagram with the hashtag #mapseries16.
I've been a busy bee working away in my studio for the past two weeks getting this big painting finished for this year's COBA Tour of Homes '16. This giant painting is my third painting in my brand new "Map Series." (I will share more on that soon!) It is entitled "Inward Journey" 2016. It measures 48" x 60" and is filled with creamy neutral tones and soft metallic golds and copper. Below you will see a sneak peek of some details, the painting in my studio in progress and a fun selfie. I'll share more photos once the painting is installed at the tour home in Shevlin for Simplicity Homes (Tour home #1 on this year's tour - hooray!)
Detail 1 from "Inward Journey" 2016 by MaryLea Harris
Detail 2 from "Inward Journey" 2016, MaryLea Harris
Detail 3 from "Inward Journey" 2016, MaryLea Harris
