Plein Air? She "Can!"

This is Nicole again introducing...MARY! Mary was first a friend of my mother's (they yoga, walk, and volunteer together, etc), but now I claim her too! Fun fact is that the three of us love to go to a delicious thai restaurant in Phoenix, Thai Lahna, whenever I'm in town to get tod man (fish patties) and their awesome lunch specials.

Mary is a landscape architect by trade, and I assumed that because she was in a creative field she had been a lifelong artist. However, talking with her on the phone yesterday, I was surprised to find out that she has only really been creating art since she had her girls. She wanted to instill in them an interest in creativity at an early age, so she would play with them in the backyard making different arrangements with stones and sticks, for instance. Eventually, as the girls got a little older, they started refining their found object creations and started calling them "bean art" because they incorporated bean pods into most of their collages.

Here is an example of one of Mary's recent bean art pieces:

(You won't see any beans here though. She found that after she had framed some bean creations under glass, that the beans would start to sprout! After that discovery, she migrated away from natural materials to recyclable objects)

I loved Mary's thoughts on art in general. She said, "So much of art has to do with taking a risk. You just have to try it, then you'll figure it out. And then the next time, you're more apt not to avoid it. You're free of apprehension and you can stretch your mind and your instincts. It's an exercise in just starting with something even though you don't know where it's going." Brilliant!

This exercise of risk taking that she encouraged her girls to practice ended up being a huge confidence builder for them. Also, obviously, it gave them great opportunities to express themselves and show their individuality. It's reasons like these that Mary is saddened that our society keeps taking art out of the schools. I say, "True dat, Mary!" (did i really just type that?)

Back to the art...

For awhile now Mary has been painting yard cans. These cans are used for a variety of purposes: bird feed, dog food, recyclables, etc. This is another practice that she originally collaborated on with one of her daughters. They made two for a friend, then the friend's friends wanted them too. So, before you knew it, painting the cans became a regular activity. Mary's daughter ended up moving out of Phoenix for college so then Mary took the reigns. Here are some of her pieces:

Pretty cool, huh?! I love geometric feel of this last one.