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Article in The Shreveport Times, February 10, 2006
The world according to Mary
February 10, 2006
Mary Louise Porter with her work on exhibit at the
Turner
Art Gallery in Shreveport. (Jim Hudelson/The Times 01.26.06)
By
Jennifer Flowers
jenniferflowers@gannett.com
Whether Mary Louise Porter sees a vivid pink sunset or a subdued green
river, she paints what she sees, but brighter.
The 54-year-old artist is a
Shreveport
native who moved to Natchitoches about 15 years ago. There she teaches
at the Louisiana School of Math, Science and the Arts. She also teaches
art history on the Internet through the Louisiana Virtual School.
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The
landscapes in and around Natchitoches and on the Cane River, where she
lives, are an important influence on her paintings and three-dimensional
box sculptures, which now are on display at the Turner Art Gallery. It
is not unusual to see a pastel of the Red River or a painting of cotton
fields, haystacks and reflections in a river.
Porter holds a master of fine art degree in painting from LSU and taught
for a stint at LSUS. She also started art programs at Shreveport's
Loyola College Prep as well as St. Mark's
Cathedral
School. She recently took part in a month-long artist fellowship at
Skidmore College in Sarasota Springs, N.Y.
QUESTION: What inspires you about the landscape where you live?
ANSWER: It's the sitting on the river, and the sunsets, and the colors.
When I first moved here to
Natchitoches,
I used to go out every morning and we would sit and watch the sunrise.
The sky was just an incredible pink and reflected in the waters.
Q: How are you inspired by the colors you see?
A: My palette in my mind, it's much more vivid. It's kind of like when
Dorothy wakes up in "The Wizard of Oz" and everything is color. It's
like putting on glasses. They're much brighter. The colors will
influence me, but I'll take it 10 levels higher.
Q: How did you become interested in three-dimensional media?
A: A year or so ago, when I was having breakfast or something, and I was
playing with cereal boxes, I started arranging them and I could see how
I could produce art in a new way. I could visualize my art
three-dimensionally and I began to play with this idea. I had someone
build me some boxes and it sort of started from there. A totally
different vision came through in my work.
Q: What are the boxes like in your Turner Art Gallery exhibit?
A: They rotate and they move around. I want the viewers to be a part of
looking at these boxes. Some of the boxes are open when you see them and
some of them have holes drilled in them so you can peer inside and look
through. A lot of them have mirrors. I like the reflection of the boxes
within the mirrors. It's touchable art, so you can sort of play with
them if you want to.
Q: How do the sculptural elements drive home your artistic message?
A: Part of this whole idea was getting beyond the corner, going beyond
the corner. And that's important: nothing's going to box you in. Corners
can be turned and corners are seen as goals in your life. Corners are
meeting points. The corners are important. In paintings you have the
corner, but not like in these 3-D boxes. They move and they change and
they evolve.
Q: What is the meaning behind it?
A: In life, people can get stuck in corners, or you can move beyond it
and go on with your life, whatever it happens to be. You can do that
with any situation. The corners of the boxes, if this makes any sense,
are part of that moving on.
Q: You have said your work is spiritual. How so?
A: You have to reach down deep inside of yourself to create anything.
You have to be in that moment. It's reaching down inside yourself and
having that connection. It's hard for me in words to explain that. I
think an artist goes into a zone. You have to be able to connect
spiritually.
Q: Why did you opt for a career in art?
A: Sometimes I wonder, there's enough art in the world, why am I doing
this? But it's something that's inside you.
February 10, 2006