Mary Anne Tateishi

When I look at art, I love to go right up and see traces of the artist…juicy brushstrokes, thin lines of contrasting colour, drawings underneath. I like to think about how a painting or sculpture was made, and how the artist made the art.

When I create art, I am very interested in showing that process. I begin with a complete abstraction, a painting of multicoloured stripes. I cover that painting with another, this time a representational painting…a map, a portrait, objects, interiors. I layer more paintings on top, sometimes on a theme and sometimes just inspired by what has gone on before. After about ten layers of different paintings, I peel back the surfaces and see what is revealed. When I peel back I cannot control what disappears and sadly sometimes I lose some lovely bits of painting. I work back and forth, adding more layers and subtracting. Paintings can have anywhere from five to twenty levels of painting underneath and take months to complete. When I judge a painting done, I apply a coat of resin. The resin changes the painting and creates a finished surface, reflects light on the colours, and makes the top levels more transparent, so more of the underlying layers are revealed.

These paintings are meant to show what is underneath, what has gone on before. They show the passage of time and the evolution of ideas. The details revealed and hints of under-paintings will show that long process of creating. And I hope that the work has enough mystery reveal something new each time you look at it.