The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/137502
Artist of the Month: Maryann Stow Artist's statement With a background in traditional and representational watercolor, I also paint expressions of the inner landscape of the personal and collective Soul. I love Asian and decorative paper, and use them in my work with increasing frequency. Recently, I have been enjoying working with acrylics and plan on doing some barn, landscape and still life in acrylic and/or collage with papers. I have also been painting more en plein air, and will be joining various regional plein air groups in outings. I like to think of these multiple styles of painting and subject matter as painting what is within and what is external; I feel a need to express both. I need the balance. In 2007 and 2008, I attended week-long visionary art intensives with Alex and Allyson Grey at Omega Institute, and in 2008 and 2009 I completed my training in Peruvian-based energy medicine at Omega. Both new endeavors are in the pursuit of accessing the unseen energy world and bringing it to visual form for individual and collective healing. My sons live in San Pedro La Laguna, on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, for half the year. In 2010, I visited there, returning in the winter of 2013 for a month. It is said by many, including Aldous Huxley, to be 'the most beautiful lake in the world'. Adding to the incredible experience is the beauty of the Mayan lake culture itself with its bronze and colorfully-clad inhabitants, who speak the Mayan T'zutujil with Spanish as a second language, and many who still wear the traditional woven attire. My oldest son has been wintering there for over 10 years, and is a "regular," with the Peneleu/Gonzales family who "adopted" him so many years ago. Because of this, my visit included being taken in as family! Taking my paints with me as usual, I painted a series of plein air watercolors and took a lot of pictures from which I painted a number of works. Selected pieces from this show, plus some plein air paintings I completed there this winter, will be hung at The Autumn Cafe, Oneonta, in May 2013. 6 Contributed O-Town Scene May 9, 2013 "Red Efts, Adult Aquatic Stage," painting by Maryann Stow