Open Door Gallery

Marian Brown: Fabrics of Meaning

June 18 - October 9, 2012

Opening Reception:
June 19, 2012, 4 - 7 pm

At 6 pm, Edward Clapp, editor of 20UNDER40: Re-Inventing the Arts and Arts Education for the 21st Century, will moderate a conversation with the artist on her use of studio art as a cathartic healing mechanism and as a way to support students with different learning styles.

About the Artist

Marian was born in Rochester NY, where she resided until 2004. She moved to Colorado to finish high school, and then attended Colorado College, in Colorado Springs. Marian, Ed.M. 2012, is a graduate of Harvard's Graduate School of Education, Arts in Education program. She seeks to address how the arts can both support and build inclusive learning communities with a universal design for learning.

The Artistic Process

In the spring of 2009 Marian sent out a letter to family and friends asking for everyone to contribute to an upcoming "family tree" project by sending in a "fiber of meaning." This entailed every family member sending in a piece of cotton clothing, which they deemed as emotionally significant. The artist was overwhelmed by the supportive response across friends and family, who in total sent sixty-pounds of clothing.

After the clothing was collected, Marian spent the summer of 2010 in two studios turning the recycled clothing into handmade paper. Marian ran a workshop for youth, involving them in the process of making handmade paper by creating specific jobs for each child. By the end of the workshop, the older children were teaching the younger children the process themselves.

In the summer of 2011, Marian began working on the completed paper. Her inspiration stems from work by both Matisse and Kara Walker. Marian's idea is to utilize positive and negative space in order to highlight the paper itself. She draws attention to the idea that paper is not simply a material to be worked on, but is indeed the art itself. She does so by pulling shapes out of the paper, and layering the paper in order to create depth and composition, as opposed to building on top of it with other materials. The color and integrity of the paper is that of the fabric from which it originated. The cotton fibers remain unsized and un-dyed. The colors are true to the clothing from which they were made.

The Open Door Gallery promotes the work of artists with disabilities and shifts our community's perceptions of ability while enjoying quality art.