Landscape: The Open Invitation
Painter and observer in time Mary Nees creates plein-air landscapes that are “like a lovely appetizer before a coming banquet.”
ON VIEW on September 9th, 2021
6:00pm ET Artist Talk on Instagram LIVE (WATCH REPLAY - length 40:06)
6:30pm ET Opening on Facebook LIVE (WATCH REPLAY - length 22:05)
IN-PERSON OPENING on September 10th, 2021, 6-8pm
Private address will be released the day before the event to those who RSVP.
PURCHASE WINDOW 9/9 - 9/16
The gallery will be open by appointment during the purchase window.
Local food feature:
Korean Taco House
Johnson City, TN
photo courtesy of Korean Taco House
A small hole in the wall restaurant dedicated to bringing you delicious Korean Street food and more authentic Korean Cuisine in the heart of downtown Johnson City, Tennessee.
Landscape: The Open Invitation
oil paintings by Mary Nees
exhibition view & details
ARTIST STATEMENT
The ambition to paint Psalms began in my mind about 30 years ago as I was pondering again through a remarkable section in the Psalter which reveals a step-by-step progression toward spiritual maturity, called the “Psalms of Ascent”.
This 15-set collection begins in an honest place of despair (Psalm 120). Themes that follow from that hard beginning then march through like a rising pilgrimage. What is glimpsed here are only postcard-type snapshots in paint from that journeying. One may sense in my imagery, but also in the recorded words themselves the developing content of faith: personal as well as community response, prayer expectation and celebrated answer, temptation and rescue, fruitfulness, persecution, quietness, history and worship. Each Psalm in the series from #120 - #134 is a stand-alone of real experience from several historical Hebrew writers. Together the collection forms a cadence which represents the normative, difficult process for any penitent, Jew or Gentile. What I find particularly fascinating is that in the collection of 15 read together, there is a rhythmic pattern which repeats even as it deepens in each measured triplet of three Psalms. Like a song sung by warriors on a trek or escaping slaves to freedom, the rhythm makes the journey mercifully doable. The imagery in informative as a whole in fascinating progression, visually and practically.
My best hope is that this work will foster your own personal investigation into these important ancient words.
—Mary Nees
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mary Nees does “conceptual landscape” from her studio space in Johnson City, or “en plein air” out in the amazing undulations of Appalachia. She was trained in Design and Environmental Analysis at Cornell University, raised a family while she started hungrily learning her Bible, and then took classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, along with special studies at the Barnes Foundation in Merion PA, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in NYC. Mary moved to the Appalachian highlands in 2003. She earned her MFA in printmaking at East Tennessee State University and then taught Color Theory and Art History there for several years. She has conducted her own workshops in the People’s Republic of China and also assisted at the Penland School of Craft.
