Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcia Wise.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I was a painfully shy child and I loved music. With musicians in the family, my mother let me begin piano lessons at an early age which I continued throughout my adult life. However, performing frightened me. Knowing this, my wonderfully supportive mother directed me into the world of art making, with the help of my grandparents with whom I also lived. Italian immigrants, my grandmother was a dress designer/maker and my grandfather a cobbler, I was taught at a young age how to sew, crochet, knit, cook, garden, etc. Although I never lost my love for music, making art became my way of expressing myself without the fear of being “on stage.” It took hold and at the age of 9, after a trip to the local library where I found a book on Monet and France, I announced I would be going to Paris to study at L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts when I was older. Interestingly enough, my mother never scoffed at this and continued to support my growing love of painting.
I grew up on Cape Cod and soon found myself spending my summers in Provincetown studying impressionism with Henry Hensche at his Cape Cod School of Art. Painting became addictive and joyous under his tutelage and my desire to learn more and more grew. Eventually I did attend the school in Paris where I earned my BFA before returning to the states to continue my studies and where I decided that my father was correct that I needed to find a way to support myself besides trying to sell paintings! I attended AIB – Art Institute Boston, and then Boston University for Art Education.
After a life time of teaching art, both at home and abroad, as well as keeping a constant studio practice of my own and exhibiting my work, I have retired from full time teaching and now continue in the studio to paint as well as to exhibit my work, while still teaching others either privately or in my painting workshops which I choose carefully so as to keep with my studio practice and desires to exhibit my work.
Please tell us about your art.
I am an oil painter, primarily. For me, painting is like breathing. I cannot image my life without this practice because of the joy it brings me.
For many years I worked hard as a realist painter, capturing every nuance I could, learning what it takes to make a good composition, how to control color, expressing exactly what I was seeing using drawing techniques while also experimenting. I think even back in my early days of painting I was always tending toward the abstract, seeing clearly that whatever the style of art being used, it was already abstract. I was amazed at this simple visual – of creating 3 dimensions from a 2-dimensional plane, the canvas.
I have learned from some amazing teachers and I believe that an understanding of the basics in art is necessary, while at the same time, one must always experiment and push into unknown territories of the world we are in as well as the world within each of us.
Impressionism has left a lasting effect on me and my work mostly because of the use of color. Color is my passion. Although I began with realism, impressionism spoke volumes to my soul… some inner knowing or understanding pushed me to dive deeply into that style. What has emerged since is an inability, which I like very much, to classify my current work. I create oil paintings on canvas, linen, board and paper which flow back and forth between my visual experience of the world and my emotional response to it.
For many years my process was painting with palette knives only on board. I was a scrapper, so canvas would be cut up if I persisted in this way. Board is a much stronger support. After years of using only brushes, I found freedom from fine definition by utilizing the palette knife. I still use it, although now I use brushes as well.
In my work, I like to let each layer of paint dry before applying another layer. In this way, and using the palette knife, I allow the application process to produce a broken color effect so that each layer of paint – each color in each layer – is seen in the finished piece. The human eye will naturally see these layers and bring them together, which is that abstract part of me, often going back and forth from more representational subjects to more abstraction. It is a process of addition and reduction when utilizing the palette knife that I enjoy. In my current paintings, which tend much more toward abstraction, I use brushes more on my first few layers and then play with the palette knife to create more texture and expressiveness in form, allowing previous layers of color to show through.
I am guided, for the most part, by my intuition when I paint. Landscape has always been my inspiration – the natural world, from woods, mountains, sky, sea, canyons, all of it. Not to exclude figurative, which shows up every now and then as do floral impressions. I am inspired by the vast beauty of our natural world and have always had this feeling of joy in recreating it with paint. I tend toward light, toward joy, toward expressing the beauty that is all around us through my own personal experience of it. My message, or what it is I want others to take away from seeing it is the same. We move toward the light, toward joy, toward becoming whole and embracing our beauty; that beauty being both outside ourselves as well as within us. I wish to connect others to this feeling, this intuitive knowing that we are all together, experiencing such magnificence of life, of love and of joy. I want others to know about my work because I believe it will inspire, it will ignite that deep-seated inner knowing that love is the true expression and, for me, guiding others toward that light will life the spirit, lift the soul, and allow us precious moments in viewing the work, to have the experience of our aliveness. For me, this is like breathing. Feeling alive and embracing all of life’s beauty and bounty. In such a troubled world as ours, we need to look within for our truths and to find our joys. That is my goal – that my work uplift others.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
For me, having background in education, I see the challenge of art education, as well as education in general. We are a society that communicates through visual media but also deprives young people of an arts education. This produces visual illiteracy which means generations will not be able to understand the world.
My other concern is equality for women artists, as well as affordable housing. From my experience, it is daunting being a practicing artist while also facing the practicality of making a living and especially for woman in the arts. Artists looking for funding or sponsorship, etc., easily find themselves in a minefield. It gets political, yes… and frustrating.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My work can be seen locally in my studio at 450 Harrison Avenue, Studio #403, in Boston’s SoWa Arts & Design District every First Friday of the month, which is our Open Studios, or by appointment by contacting me by email: mewise498@comcast.net or via my website, www.marciarwise.com, or calling 508-468-6928.
I am a core member of Fountain Street Gallery in SoWa at 460C Harrison Avenue, Suite 2, Boston 02118. My exhibit at Fountain Street Gallery will be in tandem with a fabulous Florida-based ceramics artist, Mimi Howard, and the show’s title is “Where Earth Meets Sky.” The exhibit will run from October 31 to November 25, 2018, with an Opening Reception on Friday, November 2, 2018 approximately 6 – 8PM during Novembers’ First Friday Art Walk.
My work can also be seen and purchased on the online platform www.1stdibs.com which is connected via my gallery, Fountain Street.
Please support my work by coming to First Friday Open Studios and visiting me in my studio. The public is invited to my upcoming exhibit at Fountain Street Gallery in November. Also, by going to my website and adding your email to my mailing list and contacting me via the site. Buying from living artists is always the best way to support the arts community and is deeply appreciated.
Contact Info:
- Address: 450 Harrison Avenue, Studio #403, Boston,, MA 02118
- Website: www.marciarwise.com
- Phone: 508-468-6928
- Email: mewise498@comcast.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marciafineartist/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marcia.wise.52?ref=bookmarks
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcia-wise-a8b00036/
Image Credit:
Personal photo (only): Laurie DeVault.
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