Studio Visit: Mary Zeran

1/20/2021

Our first "studio visit" of the year without a doubt needs to be where bright and colorful works live. Thanks to the pandemic and for everyone's peace of mind, we 'visited' virtually through 2020 and collected images and video of Mary Zeran's space. We were fortunate enough to see how she created her installation for her 10 year exhibition at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. This was also a great opportunity to see the birth of the new print series featured in Mission Happiness.

Mary Zeran's signature body of work is in the medium of collage. Scraps and swatches are methodically collected in flat files and spread out on her table when assembling. There's even a "closet" filled with large painted sheeths organized in a pleasing spectrum of colors.

Mary paints and prints onto transparent Duralar, a polyester film, similar to what's used for Disney animation cels. They are left on a rack to dry flat and then stored to be dissected into interesting patterned designs and elaborate abstractions of elements in nature.

After the pieces are arranged, they are mounted to paper or painted panel.

During the first wave of lockdowns from the pandemic, Mary needed a larger space to create her installation for Mary Zeran: 10 Years at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. Although we couldn't take a peek for ourselves, Mary shared some photos and video of the temporary studio upgrade. Here you can see scaling up and using newly created tools to do so.

Because of the new space, and the terror of doing much of anything else in public at the time, a feverish sketch series began.

I'd work on 12 at a time, making efficient use of the textured stamps I carved, and simultaneously thinking about what color to use with each. If something didn't work, I'd cover it up with a layer of paint. And each layer gave me a chance to redo and start fresh. Working at that speed meant there wasn't a lot of time to worry about perfection. This performative exercise to keep my mind focused on artmaking, instead of the uncertainty COVID-19 imposed, became a beautiful distraction and reenergized the way I create.