Curator's Eye: A Season of Want

Selected by Melissa Moffett and Terri Placentia, Iron Gallery

The intrinsic narrative woven into Mary Mann’s paintings evokes the kind of comfort associated with a favored warm blanket or prized stuffed animal. She’s bred that association in her audiences tacitly, through the many familiar murals that magically appear on building facades throughout the city of Tacoma.

The people she paints appeal to everyone: they are like neighbors at a summer barbeque or the postman who delivers mail all the way to your doorstep. Subliminally, she is creating a collective story and, like any good novelist, she has incorporated us all into her vision.

Stepping away from the large-scale murals for which she is known, in her most recent work — a series of smaller oil paintings — Mary seeks to take us on a new journey: one of memory and mystery and moments punctuated by time. Her intimate studies of simple objects reinforce a desire to covet, further enveloping us as participants rather than onlookers. —T.P.

The transition from large scale public murals to spending time in my studio working with personal themes has been very exciting for me. My recent paintings seek to portray blessing in the midst of chaos and consolation in a world where tremendous beauty and unspeakable suffering co-exist.   — M.M.

Image: Mixed Blessings, 2008, oil on wood panel, 36 x 24 inches