"I am a born and raised WNY’er. I live and love and work and cry and laugh and play in this place. The lake, the river, the little streams, trees, parks, buildings, abandoned fields and roadside weeds are the very cells of my body. WNY nature- tame or wild, fenced off and forgotten, this nature heals me. There is a humming, vibrating potentiality in the pieces of our past and the new spaces we are making. It is all connected. WE are ALL connected. I hope in my work to showcase this beautiful, fragile ecosystem I call home. I hope there is something for everyone here to recognize, re-discover or remember.
I began studying art at SUNY New Paltz in 1981. I transferred to SUC Buffalo State in 1983 and attended on and off to 1989, but never graduated. I worked for 30 years in health care for the WNY Developmental Disability Service Office. I came back to school in Fall 2018 to finish my BFA in Sculpture. This show is the result of experimenting in diverse materials/ methods. I try to combine things, things I make, things I find, natural/ manmade, even “garbage”. I want each element to speak in its own voice and then let the combination become something greater than the sum of their previous stories. Art to me is about connection and communication. There is a story to be told. The events of today have isolated us from ourselves, from each other and from nature. Let this be a space and a time to start to put the pieces back together." [1]
[1] Marie Kemp. THE GALLERY AT DUENDE. (n.d.). https://www.galleryatduende.com/marie-kemp.html