Mary Trodden

Statement

Statement about work 2020.

Mary Trodden.

I am an artist living in Edinburgh, I make figurative paintings and drawings. The ideas that make these images often appear by accident or while I am trying to design something else.. I wondered for a long time if this meant that I wasn’t astute enough to execute my ideas accurately but I noticed that the most effective of these attempts often contained the germination of a better truth and one that I perhaps wasn’t directly responsible for.

I took up making paintings at a young age in an effort to avoid the effects of dwelling on tragedy..it was initially a means of avoidance or oblivion though after some practice I realised that it was also a transformative process..or for me anyway it altered my situation.

I’m very interested in trying to describe reality, I feel that somehow it may be more honorable to live by one’s values and scrutinising how I perceive them..I have a job in a school which involves me teaching the methods of right brain interpretation, a system which seeks to adapt the physical and psychological means of receiving visual information.. This and learning myself about the ways in which art theory has sought to validate consciousness keeps me busy..

I was brought up under the influence of religion both of my Father who is Catholic and my Grandparents who, before they left the church were Plymouth Brethren.

Though I subsequently went on to question these aspects of governance, it bequeathed me a part in the notion of experiencing God and its beginningless tradition.

I very much admire the work of abstract 20th century mystic artists such as Paul Klee, Chagal and Kandinsky and their description of form as a psychological or spiritual condition.

I think in my drawings I am very engaged with the aesthetic influence of early illustration and printmaking, the book of Kells, the workshops of Micheal Maier and Johann Theodore de Bry.

These Drawings are pictures of an imagined life cycle, a journey through the thresholds of birth, adolescence and maturity. I drew them freehand in quite a chaotic way on bits of found paper from my Dad’s house in Sunderland and assembled the pieces with bits of sticking tape. I then drew corresponding geometric shapes over the top of them, scanned them and digitally altered then in preparation for screen printing..

They show a woman who is working with the sea..she is making protective talismans and garments.

Biography

Mary Trodden EXPERIENCE Teaching Higher Art at Edinburgh Steiner School August 2017 - PRESENT This involves close working and dialogue with colleagues, learning a great deal of the techniques and approaches used for the upper school art practice. I became more familiar with pupils’ ways of making and being creative and also alongside this, a sense of how to negotiate the curriculum. ARTIST July 2001 -PRESENT I’ve been working as a professional artist since I left college. I make and exhibit work regularly in Edinburgh and have a studio at the Wasps in Patriothall. I also had experience of product design work for both Hallmark Cards and Marks and Spencer. I’ve worked on quite a few multidisciplinary projects including performance, curating, magazine layout, murals and installation art. EDUCATION Edinburgh College of Art, B.A Hons Degree in Drawing and Painting. MONTH 1998 - MONTH 2001 A degree that holds the principles of classical drawing and painting, inventive and developmental thought processes and provides a foundation for a creative life. St Anthony’s R.C School, Sunderland —GCSE and A level MONTH 1990 - MONTH 1996 I gained 10 GCSE grades A to C and 4 A levels A to C SELECTED PROJECTS Artists’ Collective 2015-present — Women’s Art Collective in Edinburgh I set up an artist group to meet, exhibit and publish works together. Originally it was composed of people I had met in college but now there are over 50 of us from all across the uk . We are a well loved and popular group that draws much respect and support from within the arts community. Children’s Ward at the Borders General Hospital 2007/8 — At the Borders General Hospital in Melrose. This was a year long project commissioned by the Borders Voluntary Youth Work Forum which I helped design and manage. It was aimed at long term resident patients within the children’s ward to help them feel more at home within the institution. We collaborated with Dr Brian Moffat on the site of the Medieval Hospital at the Soutra Aisle in a fascinating exploration of the development of modern medicine. Forest Cafe 2001-2004 — Not for Profit creative business in Edinburgh. When I graduated, I joined a small group of entrepreneurs to set up ‘The Forest Cafe’ a not for profit creative start up. We were awarded funding from The Scottish Arts Council, the National Lottery, the Millenium Awards and the Edinburgh University Settlement. I was involved in all stages of the application proposals,it was a platform where young people could have experience of running a business themselves. I set up a gallery called ‘Total Kunst’ which showed emerging artists, had an international residency program and published a biannual magazine.