Monthly Archives: October 2021

JayJay: The Back Room Weekly

Jay Jay The Back Room Weekly

 

Time for the Back Room Weekly!

This week’s piece: Sisters by Mary Warner

Mary Warner is well known for her floral paintings of breathtaking blooms, filled with liveliness and vibrant arrays of color. Her most recent sunflower series show the latter stage of a life cycle and are no less dramatic or remarkable than her paintings of flowers in their prime. Warner gives viewers a new perspective of her once flourishing blossoms; that there is beauty and purity in the process of dying. This novel shift in her work embraces the wabi-sabi, Japanese aesthetics that center on acceptance and loveliness of impermanence and imperfection. Wabi-sabi believes decay is more evocative than full bloom because the signs of coming and going are alluring and suggest transience. This series elicits a deep emotional response to its viewers, as they contemplate poignancy, fragility, and the continual splendor of life itself. Download the full article pdf

Panorama

Selections from the Nevada Arts Council’s Artist Fellowship Program

Biography: Mary Warner is a visual artist, educator and curator. Born and raised in northern California, she has lived in Chicago and New York City. She has taught at the University of Montana, Oklahoma State University, and University of Texas San Antonio before finally settling in Las Vegas in 1989. She retired from her position as head of painting in the Art Department at UNLV in 2011 and is now Professor Emeritus. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mid America Arts Alliance, and in 1993 and 2009, two from the Nevada Arts Council, as well as numerous smaller grants and awards. She is the recipient of the 2011 Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence in the Arts. Download Pdf for the full article