Mary Hood Statement

The degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory; the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting. – Slowness, Milan Kundera (1996)

For many years I worked with the idea of Silence in artist’s books, prints, paintings, drawings, sculptures, sound, and installations that sought to create a temporal environment for experiencing Silence.  In 2000 my ideas turned to the abstract notion of Time, which, like Silence, is purely rhetorical rather than factual in its definition. And although the events of September 11, 2001 did not predicate the change in my work, they did have a powerful impact.  For me, time stopped that day, and then it shifted, as political commentator Daniel Schorr observed on National Public Radio when he referenced 9/11+1, 9/11+2, 9/11+3. Time, mathematically and philosophically, is a measure of motion, which is reflected in our experiences and memories. The one point philosophers and mathematicians writing on Time have agreed upon, from Aristotle, to Heidegger, to Hawking, is that Time only exists in the moment.  The past and future only potentially exist through memories and ambitions.

I realized that Time was visually eclipsing itself in my images.  The darkness of the Into Black series spoke to me of contraction, of dark matter present in the atmosphere (discovered in 2002) and of the time space continuum closing in upon its’ self.  Time was not moving forward, but digressing into a past state of chaos. The current global climate of war, social and political inequality, occupation and conflicting interests and ideologies all sought refuge in this darkness.  This suite of prints was conceived and executed on a very intuitive level, although through my working methodologies a structure did begin to emerge which sought to create order.

In the fall of 2004 I fully turned my attention to the Now and began hand painting 10,000 Tears. This ongoing project is an important tool for reflecting upon the current environmental, social and political unrest in our chaotic global theatre.  10,000 Tears seeks to create a visual structure, universal in its symbolism, for expressing that which is often inexpressible in language. A series of prints and artists books followed in which water is pooling, overflowing, diverting and escaping. The water in turn becomes the substance of reflection and a symbol for our collective sub-consciousness, and within each drop of water I etched my fingerprint to give an individual identity to the symbolism in the image.  

For “Pocahontas Meets Hello Kitty” a portfolio exchange in support of Native American communities, I invited Native American women to contribute their fingerprints to the image by hosting a “fingerprint event”. This collaborative process was very inspiring and revealed to me the social agency that printmaking could play in my studio practice as well the potential for future projects within different communities. To use my identity, or fingerprint in this project was not appropriate because I did not want to impose my cultural identity on another or have it seem that I am assimilating another identity. Collective Pooling takes this idea one step farther by inviting participants to contribute their fingerprint or identity to the larger collective.  The fingerprint, the sole marker of our uniqueness, and perhaps the most democratic means of printmaking available, lends itself to exploring individual and collective identities within the community while building trust, communication, and engaging all participants in the moment.

The Mandala(s) that followed in 2007 seemed to me a logical extension, one of hope and possible resolution. The Mandala series is, to me, the embodiment of hope and the reliance of the human spirit to overcome great obstacles.  Each Mandala is created by the use of my fingerprint, and drawn not with assistance of a computer, but by hand, focusing on the power and will of human endurance.  It was my intention to create a body of work that focused on our ability to draw on the internal strength and hope that defines our identity.  The fingerprint represents this individuality and demonstrates the focus on the power within us to promote change and search for strength.  Historically the mandala has been a vehicle to meditate on the journey to new awareness of individual identity and representation of the unconscious self.

About the Artist

Mary Hood, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, currently resides in Tempe, Arizona where she is an assistant professor of art/printmaking at Arizona State University.  Previously, she taught at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of North Texas as a visiting professor. Hood received her Master of Fine Art degree from the University of Dallas, in Dallas, Texas and her undergraduate degree from Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida.  Hood’s work, which focuses on Silence, Time and Space, Identity and experience, has been exhibited both nationally and internationally earning her awards, residencies, publications and other honors.