BFA, 1986
California College of the Arts
Certificate in Multi-media Design, 2001
SF State University
Quote for the Day:
"Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way."~ Dr. Seuss
I was born in Oakland, California and at the age of six my family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. In the first grade, I sold my first painting from a group show. It was one of many family portraits I painted, my world as the youngest of seven children. I think, in some way, I'm still painting that portrait, only my sense of family is more largely defined.
When I turned twenty, I moved back to Oakland to attend art school at the California College of Arts and Crafts (CCA, today) and completed my BFA with an emphasis in painting, printmaking and textile arts. During my studies, I was influenced by studies of the Etruscans as well as the Expressionists.
By and by, artists such as Leon Golub, Jacob Lawrence, and Romare Bearden began to resonate. Photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, and Diane Arbus opened my eyes. The vast swirl of words from the Sufi poetry of Kabir to contemporary writers and poets like Don DeLillo, Jeanette Winterson, and Alice Walker sparked my fire. Artists all, who capture a simple moment, thought, gesture of the ordinary and mundane that suggests the extraordinary and mysterious sanctuary that lies beneath that surface. This contemplation is my constant source material.
My process is very stream-of-consciousness. Simple images and bits of words converge as memory, metaphor and metaphysics onto my canvas and become part of life's family portrait.
Contact me at marycorbin@hotmail.com
