The circular pattern of memory.
Artist Marie Ringwald makes sculptures using an assortment of wood, metal, plastic and paper. Her main interest is in architecture and her studio is in an 1890′s row house in Washington, DC. Everywhere you look in Marie’s studio you see surfaces of beautifully aged wood or revealed layers of paint. An abundance of paintbrushes clustered in glass jars, sheets of aluminum, brass and copper and boxes of corrugated paper, hand tools and swatches of paint surround you. All the various ingredients that appear in the superbly balanced compositions of her art.
I asked Marie to talk about the creative influences of her early childhood.
My earliest creative memories are about pots of tempera paint + how the paint spread on newsprint or brown paper, drying to a matte opaque surface. And I remember building BLOCKS! We had the German blocks that had arches and columns at home. I also remember a wonderful set of blocks at kindergarten that had shoe box size blocks with bricks painted on them and long thin boards so you could make houses and bridges, etc.
One of my first favorite paintings was Vermeer’s “The Little Street.” Mrs. Cranford, my grade school art teacher, gave us a postcard of this image.
Elyse Harrison sent me this photograph of buildings in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany after seeing my “Patchwork Barn.” Her image reminds me of those wonderful blocks – the juxtaposition of shapes and the symmetrical building next to the irregularly shaped one. The muted colors and lovely surfaces are also very appealing to me. I’m sure this image will inspire new work.
Patchwork Barn, Marie Ringwald, 2011
In looking at these images and thinking about my early childhood creative memories I’m struck by the circular pattern of memory and my persistent attraction to particular colors and surfaces and especially to building shapes, forms and surfaces. Childhood preferences have stayed with me and weave into my current art making.
