mdaltonart

Profile

City: Cazenovia
Country: United States

Joined: Jan 2009

Painting, for me, is a cathartic process that enables me to draw from many sources from the past and present. The act of painting itself struggles to survive in the ever-changing world of technology and the saturation of media imagery.

My visual language focuses on the images and written vocabulary of my past while utilizing elements of metaphor, icon, allegory, and sometimes satire to tell my stories. I often draw upon phrases from my own childhood, where nursery rhymes and familiar sayings carry conceptual meaning while adding an element of whimsy. Intrigued with the conflicting images of women portrayed throughout art history as both Eve and Mary, (seductress and angel) and the multiple ubiquitous symbols women represent: mother, earth, nature and humanity; these are interwoven throughout my paintings.

The juxtaposition of flat, graphic techniques with the textural, tactile painted surface invites the viewer to ‘touch’ it visually, adding to its seductive, personal quality. At the same time I deliberately try to create a space that is flat and ambiguous by creating a tension between the two and three-dimensional surfaces by approaching the canvas as a collage and “placing” painted elements “into” the space as “pieces” in a puzzle working in both harmony and opposition.

Through a combination of techniques utilizing traditional oil, acrylic, spray paint and marker, stories unfold from deep within my own consciousness, each relating to a memory, image or event that haunts and intrigues me.
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A resident of upstate New York, Dalton holds a Master of Fine Art from Southern Illinois University as well as a Bachelor of Fine Art from Moore College of Art and Design. Marianne is a founding member of The Redhouse, a visual and performing arts center in Syracuse, New York, where she served as curator and gallery director from 2004 through June of 2007.