Every few weeks we feature a different artist in the Manhattan Arts International Reading Room. They are usually in the form of interviews and offer unique insight into the artist's creative vision, goals and upcoming events.
The newest artist we are proud to present is Marie Hines Cowan, who started studying art at the age of 12. This New York artist paints stories -- narratives -- often originating in Greek mythology.
Marie states, "Well, my paintings are narratives. I have studied the evolution of myths in Greek oral tradition and through literature and art, and the stories I most often paint originate in Greek mythology. This may seem removed from today’s world and limiting but mythology evolves and grows with its recounter. It takes on aspects of the culture it joins and adds its own ideologies to that culture. Mythology is a melting pot, like New York and my paintings reflect this.
I see the iconoclastic personifications of ideas, philosophies and characters of Greek mythology in the everyday people of New York regardless of ethnicity.
My subjects often look directly at the viewer, confronting and demanding a response. The palette is also intense and aggressive. My colors are pushed just a bit more than what the average eye sees. I am more interested in the overwhelming intensities of nature than its subtleties, and I combine a painterly manner of laying on color with a bit of stylization."
A one-person exhibition of her work is scheduled to be held at the Arts & Culture Museum, in New Rochelle, NY, in the Spring, 2012. She will also be participating the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) art exhibition titled "The Art of Giving Back", an art fundraiser in New York, NY that benefits the UNCF Ernie Barnes Memorial Art Scholarship.
Read this interview with Marie Hines Cowan and more in the Manhattan Arts International Reading Room.
