Pieces that seem to represent a hodgepodge of everyday and non-everyday images form the building blocks of Mary Bruns.
Bruns is an artist who utilizes split imagery as a means of expression. The activity of one side of the painting or drawing is filled with the thoughts, activities and memories which best describe the person whose full portrait is juxtaposed next to it.
The portraits are always a monochromatic choice of colors, while the opposing split view, in a mode of realism, is either black and white or in color.
Fans of Bruns’ work, as well as those who might enjoy knowing more about it, will have a chance to explore her talent at a display scheduled March 11-April 23 at Chandler Center for the Arts.
To those unfamiliar with Bruns’ visuals, she describes her painting as “collective realism.”
She uses her art as a means of creating visual energy to satisfy and explain a situation—a life, an encounter or a human dilemma—the same way a theater visit gives explanations and insights.
“I use old photographs, photos that I have taken and advertising as references and models in my artworks,” Bruns says.
“I give vintage photography a story and stage, and I enjoy the process of painting or drawing each one to look like a photograph or the exacting of an ad.”
“I use glaze over glaze technique as the old masters did. At no time are transfers ever used. Ordinary objects become quite extraordinary if time is taken to look at them.”
During her formal training, Bruns says, no one taught her to paint. She made up her own formulas and researched old master glaze formulas. All of her instructors were abstract artists and respected her because she was working in realism.
“They left me alone to create images that I wanted, the way I wanted to.”
Mary Bruns is a deep rooted art history person. She studied baroque painters and interpreted their representation. She incorporated the style into her own means of painting. Mary Bruns has exhibited all over the United States for over thirty years and is included in the permanent art collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Atlanta, as well as in numerous private collections.
Mary Bruns currently works from her studio in Cave Creek, Arizona.
Information: www.marybrunsart.com
Chandler Center for the Arts is at 250 N. Arizona Ave.
