Biography

“When art is in your soul, you simply cannot breathe unless you are painting.”

Mary Farmer‘s every breath reflects that of an accomplished, seasoned artist.  Following in the footsteps of such renowned painters as Jasper Johns, she chose the unique medium of encaustic painting to express herself artistically to the world.  Her pieces explore a wide range of content, possibilities and personal history. Using one of the most innovative methods of painting, Farmer melts beeswax and colored pigments into liquid/paste and then applies the hot mixture to a white panel. She labors through hours of sculpting and layering to build vibrant images into masterful works of art.  

Farmer notes, “I love to work closely with other encaustic painters; we see ourselves as the Alchemists of the twenty-first century.”

Her technique is rather unconventional as she often uses watercolor in her process. This technique provides a beautiful, dreamy “under painting” for her layering effects. She also mixes her own pigments and incorporates handmade paper, raw pigment, graphite, and oil stick within the many layers of her paintings. Farmer is a known teacher and safety expert; she teaches both novice and experienced encaustic artists on various aspects of the technique including the careful handling of materials.

Farmer’s raw talent combined with her continuing dedication to creating new and impressive works is reflected in her rising status in the encaustic community.  Her work has been featured in such publications as: American Art Collector, Embracing Encaustic, Novato Advance, Embracing Encaustic, The Peoria Star Journal, and the Marin Independent Journal. Farmer constantly strives to grow as an artist, seeing new images in her mind that she deems transferable to her canvas.

Farmer’s work is included in the collections of MCI World Communications, Atlanta Gas Light, World Marriott Orlando, and The Atlanta College of Art amongst other important private collections throughout the country.  She has participated in juried exhibitions in Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Prescott AZ, and Laredo, Texas. Farmer was the proud recipient of the Atlanta College of Art's Presidential Scholarship.  She won an award at the 10th International Juried Exhibition at The Laredo Center for the Arts and another at The Postcard Show at Lincoln Center in New York.

A solo show of Changing Coasts, Farmer’s exploration of her new hometown will open in early 2009. Farmer’s work has been featured in group shows including the International Encaustic Invitational in Tucson in 2006/07/08. The Annual Juried Exhibition of Marin Artists in San Rafael, CA in 2004, the National Juried Exhibition in San Francisco in 2003 and the Expression Without Limitation, Show in Atlanta in 2000.

“My mind is most at ease when I am painting. The preparation of the panels, the application of paint, observing the changes of each piece as I proceed…these are all very, very satisfying,” says Farmer.

Farmer obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Georgia State University after beginning her degree program at the Atlanta College of Art.  She has completed several encaustic workshops and certificate programs in New York and San Francisco. She is an affiliate of International Encaustic Artists (IEA), an organization that brings encaustic painters together to share, connect and collaborate on projects. Select members of this group including Farmer participated in a 2007 show at the Las Vegas Contemporary Art Center, a 2008 show at Cain Schulte Contemporary Art in San Francisco and she is participating in the ongoing Diptych Project that pairs an IEA artist with a NEW (New England Wax) artist. This affiliation has Farmer participating in exhibitions that bring this work to a vast number of encaustic art devotees and to those unfamiliar with the medium but who are immediately curious about it when they encounter it. 

Mary Farmer lives in Asheville, North Carolina and has a studio dedicated to support a constant flow of her creative juices.  Mary and her husband, Michael, travel often to new and exotic places, “We both have a touch of gypsy in our souls” and she has a particular affinity for New York, Paris, Portland (both) and New Zealand. She attended the Havana Biennale in March 2006. They have traveled to hike the Italian Alps, the West Coast of Ireland and much of New Zealand’s South Island. Visiting Italy, France, etc to ramble through galleries and museums taking in as much art as possible is a favorite endeavor. Farmer hopes to visit Morocco soon, “the colors seem so vibrant and I have a notion of the spicy smells”, where she will visit the ancient cities and hike the Atlas Mountains.

Art Exhibitions

Selected Solo Shows:
2009      Changing Coasts, Asheville Area Arts Council, Asheville, NC
2006      Balance and Rhythms, Illinois Central College, East Peoria, IL
            Balance and Rhythms, William Torphy Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2005      Solo Show, Artifax, Fairfax, CA
2004      Solo Show, Marin Civic Center Gallery, San Rafael, CA
            Coastal Rhapsody, Thomson Hall Gallery, Sausalito, CA

Selected Group Shows:
2009      Spring Forward, Artizen Fine Arts, Dallas, TX
            225°F: Encaustic Encounters, Turchin Center for Visual Arts, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
2008      Encaustic Invitational, 3rd Annual, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
            Layer Upon Layer, Artizen Fine Arts, Dallas, TX
            Life and The Machine, Yavapai College, Prescott, AZ
            The Diptych Show:  A Collaboration in Wax, Brian Marki Fine Art, Portland, OR
            The Diptych Show:  A Collaboration in Wax, Second National Encaustic Conference, Montserrat College of Art,
            Beverly, MA
            The Diptych Show:  A Collaboration in Wax, Eleanor Bliss Center for the Arts, Steamboat Springs, COC
2007     Per Square Foot, ConradWilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
            Metaphors of Nature, Artizen Fine Arts, Dallas, TX
            Re-newal, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, CA
            Encaustic Invitational, 2nd Annual, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
            NINE, Group Encaustic Show, Las Vegas Contemporary Art Collective, Las Vegas, NV
            NINE, Group Encaustic Show, Butte Art Center, Butte, MT
            Bay Area Juried Exhibition, Juror: Donna Seeger, Donna Seeger Gallery, Falkirk Center, San Rafael, CA
2006      Absolutely Abstract, Juror: Robert Green, Robert Green Gallery, Artisans Gallery, San Rafael, CA
            A Matter of Scale, ALNC, Novato, CA
            Encaustic Invitational, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
            Hot Wax, STUDIO Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2005      + or - one foot of art, Art Pic Modern and Contemporary, North Hollywood, CA
            Oil + Wax/Chapter & Verse, Art League of Northern California Gallery, Novato, CA
            Group Show, City Art, San Francisco, CA
            20th Anniversary Show, Art Concepts, Walnut Creek, CA
            Group Show, City Art, San Francisco, CA
            Moving Toward Light, Claudia Chapline Gallery, Stinson Beach, CA
2004      Annual Juried Exhibition of Marin Artists, Juror: Robbin Henderson, Director, Berkeley Art Center,
            Falkirk Center San Rafael, CA
            Contemporary Abstracts, Jurors: Claudia Marseille, Danielle Shelley, Artisans Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
2003      Whole Ball of Wax, Juror: Joanne Mattera, WomanMade Gallery, Chicago, IL
            National Juried Exhibition, Juror: Marian Parmenter, Director SFMOMA Artists, San Francisco, Artisans, Mill
            Valley, CA
2002      10th Annual International Juried Exhibition, Juror: Juergen Strunck, Laredo Center for the Arts,
            Laredo, TX
            National Juried Exhibition, Juror: John Killacky, Executive Director, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,
            San Francisco, Artisans, Mill Valley, CA
            The Post Card Show: “Wish You Were Here”, The Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
            Small Works, New Arts Program Space, Kutztown, PA
2001      Drawing Exhibition, Youngblood Gallery, Atlanta, GA
            Out of Water, Lowrey Gallery, Athens, GA
            Selfsame, Gallery 100, Atlanta, GA
            Juried Exhibition, Juror: Ron Platt, Weatherspoon Gallery, University of North Carolina,
            ACA Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2000      Expression Without Limitation, Open Studio Show, Atlanta, GA
            Return, Autrey Mill Nature Preserve, Alpharetta, GA
            Water, Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta GA, Gulf Port Junior College, Gulf Port, MS
            Parkview, McFee Gallery of Art, Indianapolis, IN
            Osmosis, Gallery 100, Atlanta, GA
1999      Stove Works Show, Atlanta Stove Works, Atlanta GA

Publications:
  Where Magazine-Dallas, March 2008
  Novato Advance, September 27, 2006
  Peoria Journal Star, August 20, 2006
  Novato Advance, November 9, 2005
  American Art Collector, Volume 2, Book 1, 2005, Berkeley, CA
  Pacific Sun, October 14-20,2005
  Marin Independent Journal, October 7, 2005
  Pacific Sun, April 22-28, 2005
  Marin Independent Journal, June, 2004
  Athens Daily News, April 5, 2001 Mary Farmer

Collections:
  Atlanta Gas Light
  University of Texas, Center for Brainhealth
  Dowling, Langley & Associates
  MCI-WorldCom-Atlanta
  Atlanta College of Art, Artist’s Book Collection
  Marriot World Resort Orlando
  Private Collections

Awards:
2002      Prize awarded:  Postcard Show, Lincoln Center, NY
            Prize awarded: 10th International Juried Exhibition, The Laredo Center for the Arts, Laredo, TX
2001      Presidential Scholarship, Atlanta College of Art

Education:
2004      Encaustic Workshop, San Francisco, CA
2003      Bachelor of Fine Art, Georgia State University, Cum Laude
1999      Encaustic Workshop, Kingston New York
2001      Atlanta College of Art
1986      Bachelor of Science, Auburn University at Montgomery

Artist’s Statement: Changing Coasts

Painting is my visual diary I record certain moments of time in each piece. Right now, I am busy translating the light of Asheville, which I find spectacular, into the encaustic paintings you see here. Encaustic, beeswax and Damar resin, has its own particular luminosity, the light is drawn into the wax, shattered and redirected toward you, the viewer. This work has great depth and the appearance of being lit from within.
The encaustic painting method is centuries old and was widely use by the Greeks and Egyptians, you may have seen the life-like mummy portraits of Fayum, they are rendered in encaustic.

We, my husband, Michael, dog, May and me, have recently moved to Asheville and during our house search I requested three things: studio space, a killer closet, and a mountain to look upon. Fate smiled upon us and I am happy to say, “I am three for three.” What I did not know at the time was how seductive that mountain would be. I sit outside and study its form, how the trees change, how the light reflects, and what the clouds look like as they pass over. This “mountain contemplation” is glorious and blissful day dreaming; the day dreaming I have longed for, the day dreaming that completely recharges my soul. Hey, try it!

The Changing Coasts series is familiar in my abstraction of the landscape, but newly infused with Western North Carolina light. I consider abstraction the best way to describe the moments I choose to recall. These are significant because this memory has pricked some deep part of my brain. From this, my jumpstarted brain sends a message to my heart that then gets my hands moving toward a painting. This is no quiet storm, it is an all consuming, compelling reaction that absolutely requires my presence in the studio; it’s paint or put me in a straight jacket.

Working in wax, painting with encaustic, is a very physical endeavor. You’ll find heat guns, hot plates, large wooden panels, and gas torches in my studio. This physicality is very appealing to me as I layer and scrape, gouge and fill, heat and distress each work. When paired with my own visual vocabulary, this way of working is the perfect combination of process, abstraction, color, movement, and composition. --Mary Farmer
 

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