January/February 2015
Interviews
Merry ArtToones
Interviewed by SAN editor C.J. Shane
Interviews
Merry ArtToones
Interviewed by SAN editor C.J. Shane
Merry Arttoons
Sonoran Arts Network: Let’s start with a key question. What should we call you? Mary, Mary Susan, Merry Mary, Merry ArtTooes, or something entirely different?
Merry ArtToones (MA): Merry ArtToones , M.F.A. is my artist name …. I adopted it from a memory of a critique I had in art school where the professor said my work was too cartoony…and I answered “No, it’s Artoony.” The C ran away. And so when I was searching for a name that would give me a little anonymity in my private life, I hit on Merry Arttoones. My students have nicknamed me Merry Mary because Facebook has insisted I use a real name. so for my timeline on FB, I use my birth name Mary Susan Cate…which was the most unreal, real name I could think of since I’ve been married 40 years and no one has addressed me by my maiden name in that time. Thus my illusion of anonymity remains intact though on given days, I feel a strange sense of schizophrenia (laughs).
SAN: From the resume on your website, it looks like you are a transplant from back east. You earned your MFA at the Maryland Institute of College of Art in Baltimore. How did you end up in Tucson?
MA: I had this spiritual experience where I was instructed to “make your life a beautiful desert.” There were no operating instructions (laughs) Now this caused quite a bit of confusion. Was this a metaphysical desert, ala The Matrix...ala ”Welcome to the desert of the real”, or a St. John of the Cross spiritual desert ,or a physical desert. I decided the safest course was to check out the physical desert and ended up in Tucson. I fell in love with the mountains, the cactus. I went back to Baltimore and began doing desert paintings, and returning every Christmas to inhale the desert.
Merry ArtToones (MA): Merry ArtToones , M.F.A. is my artist name …. I adopted it from a memory of a critique I had in art school where the professor said my work was too cartoony…and I answered “No, it’s Artoony.” The C ran away. And so when I was searching for a name that would give me a little anonymity in my private life, I hit on Merry Arttoones. My students have nicknamed me Merry Mary because Facebook has insisted I use a real name. so for my timeline on FB, I use my birth name Mary Susan Cate…which was the most unreal, real name I could think of since I’ve been married 40 years and no one has addressed me by my maiden name in that time. Thus my illusion of anonymity remains intact though on given days, I feel a strange sense of schizophrenia (laughs).
SAN: From the resume on your website, it looks like you are a transplant from back east. You earned your MFA at the Maryland Institute of College of Art in Baltimore. How did you end up in Tucson?
MA: I had this spiritual experience where I was instructed to “make your life a beautiful desert.” There were no operating instructions (laughs) Now this caused quite a bit of confusion. Was this a metaphysical desert, ala The Matrix...ala ”Welcome to the desert of the real”, or a St. John of the Cross spiritual desert ,or a physical desert. I decided the safest course was to check out the physical desert and ended up in Tucson. I fell in love with the mountains, the cactus. I went back to Baltimore and began doing desert paintings, and returning every Christmas to inhale the desert.
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Here’s a couple of samples. Eventually I just had to have the desert full time. So hubby and I retired from our teaching jobs, sold our little hobby horse farm and headed for Tucson. P. S. The first painting entitled Transcendence started from a picture I took of a bench that I photographed on Christmas day in Catalina State Park, and the second entitled Treasure Map is from a photo taken out Gates Passway.
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Merry ArtToones_Transcendence_
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Merry ArtToones_Treasure Map_
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Merry ArtToones_Egghead: In the Company of the Muse_
SAN: What is it about 3-D work (three-dimension) in clay and bronze that appeals to you in contrast to painting and drawing?
MA: I have always felt an actual creation of 3-D was an easier task than the creation of the illusion of 3-D in a painting. But 3D is physically more demanding so I avoided it in my youth and waited until I was older and frailer and more stubborn to take it up in my dotage. Actually 3-D had been creeping into my work for a long time. My MFA thesis at MICA Hoffberger was all 3-D, but mostly assemblage and mostly relief. Then when still living on the east coast, I got this idea for a series of pieces where the story indeed needed to be told in the round, the narrative unfolding in chapters as a book as the viewer walked around the piece. I sketched out the ideas in the daily sketchbook I kept back then, closed the book, and kept on painting.
SAN: What adjustments did you have to make to your work process when you moved to the Sonoran Desert?
MA: I did initially continue to paint when I got here but I could not seem to be satisfied with any of the paintings. I have a pile of unfinished paintings from the early days in Tucson. Very soon, though, a small inheritance enabled me to purchase a kiln and so I pulled out the sketchbook revisited the drawings and was off. At about the same time I enrolled in bronze and welding classes at Pima. I had studied classical figurative sculpture while at MICA and had the privilege of studying pottery with the Japanese potter Tehuro Hara at Mary Washington when I was getting my teaching certificate. So it wasn’t much of a stretch. Actually it felt like coming home.
MA: I have always felt an actual creation of 3-D was an easier task than the creation of the illusion of 3-D in a painting. But 3D is physically more demanding so I avoided it in my youth and waited until I was older and frailer and more stubborn to take it up in my dotage. Actually 3-D had been creeping into my work for a long time. My MFA thesis at MICA Hoffberger was all 3-D, but mostly assemblage and mostly relief. Then when still living on the east coast, I got this idea for a series of pieces where the story indeed needed to be told in the round, the narrative unfolding in chapters as a book as the viewer walked around the piece. I sketched out the ideas in the daily sketchbook I kept back then, closed the book, and kept on painting.
SAN: What adjustments did you have to make to your work process when you moved to the Sonoran Desert?
MA: I did initially continue to paint when I got here but I could not seem to be satisfied with any of the paintings. I have a pile of unfinished paintings from the early days in Tucson. Very soon, though, a small inheritance enabled me to purchase a kiln and so I pulled out the sketchbook revisited the drawings and was off. At about the same time I enrolled in bronze and welding classes at Pima. I had studied classical figurative sculpture while at MICA and had the privilege of studying pottery with the Japanese potter Tehuro Hara at Mary Washington when I was getting my teaching certificate. So it wasn’t much of a stretch. Actually it felt like coming home.
Merry ArtToones_Prometheus Bound_
SAN: Your work has a strong narrative component? What is it about story telling that appeals to you?
MA: I’ve always been a bit of a watcher making up stories in my head about people and incidences I see, and I’ve always been a bookworm quite willing to spend days in a row head buried in a book. In grad school, I delved deeper into poetry. That seemed to open up the use of metaphor in tale telling for me. Plus I tend to be a bit bewildered and in a state of trying to figure out what the heck is going on, Spinning, building, and painting a story in the midst of that bewilderment tends to bring me to a kind of clarity though that clarity might only be fleeting. Also some time it feels like having a prayer conversation with God or an argument with him (laughs).
SAN: There are strong elements of both classic and mythic stories in your work, and also fairy tales, too. There’s so much to see! Do you have a favorite story that you’ve portrayed in clay or bronze?
MA: Hmm… Shakespeare… especially Macbeth…the witches spell at the beginning of the play which drives all the action. “Fair is foul and foul is fair, Hover in the fog and filthy air.” Yes. that conundrum of illusion masquerading as truth and the obfuscating haze created by that condition is an ongoing leit motif in my work. And I like to borrow from Greek mythology for imagery because it is so iconic to Western culture. It is an imagery that at once seems familiar to our soul… Here’s a piece entitled Prometheus Bound: A Strictly Dissfunctional Incense Burner to the Gods.
MA: I’ve always been a bit of a watcher making up stories in my head about people and incidences I see, and I’ve always been a bookworm quite willing to spend days in a row head buried in a book. In grad school, I delved deeper into poetry. That seemed to open up the use of metaphor in tale telling for me. Plus I tend to be a bit bewildered and in a state of trying to figure out what the heck is going on, Spinning, building, and painting a story in the midst of that bewilderment tends to bring me to a kind of clarity though that clarity might only be fleeting. Also some time it feels like having a prayer conversation with God or an argument with him (laughs).
SAN: There are strong elements of both classic and mythic stories in your work, and also fairy tales, too. There’s so much to see! Do you have a favorite story that you’ve portrayed in clay or bronze?
MA: Hmm… Shakespeare… especially Macbeth…the witches spell at the beginning of the play which drives all the action. “Fair is foul and foul is fair, Hover in the fog and filthy air.” Yes. that conundrum of illusion masquerading as truth and the obfuscating haze created by that condition is an ongoing leit motif in my work. And I like to borrow from Greek mythology for imagery because it is so iconic to Western culture. It is an imagery that at once seems familiar to our soul… Here’s a piece entitled Prometheus Bound: A Strictly Dissfunctional Incense Burner to the Gods.
MArtToones_Great Steed of Greed_
SAN: Do you think life in the Sonoran Desert has had an impact on content and form in your artwork?
MA: I love the desert…my body loves the desert…I love Tucson, I like to run up its mountains and through its trails in the early morning. When I moved here I felt I had finally brought myself home. Mind you I was a military brat and all military brats grow up confused about where home is (laughs). Then as an aging arthritic artist sculpting in the dry of the desert is a mercy to my body. The desert with its prickly dangerous beautiful cactus makes you move through it more purposefully and carefully than other landscapes and that it would seem is a life lesson in itself.
SAN: You website has some fairly comprehensive explanations of what inspired specific works, and how you produced them. Your blog has photos and explanations of processes you went through to create a piece. Does this mean you consider yourself as much a teacher of art as an artist?
MA: I taught art for over 10 years. Finally I felt it was becoming more and more a subversive activity to actually attempt to teach art in the construct of the public school system. I’m an artist first though. But, yes I enjoy teaching, but really I think I’m more of a coach than a teacher. The difference being -if you are not interested in art then I’m not really interested in convincing you. But if you are interested and involved, I’m really enthusiastic about sharing some things I’ve learned along the way. I had some great teacher/ coaches, William Woodward for painting at the Corcoran Museum of Art, Harold Isen for drawing at the same school, and Grace Hartigan at MICA. There were also some influential visiting artists like Elaine DeKoonig and Gene Davis, and another who really gave me some insight on seeing and alas, whose name I can’t remember. I hope I can do the same for other.
MA: I love the desert…my body loves the desert…I love Tucson, I like to run up its mountains and through its trails in the early morning. When I moved here I felt I had finally brought myself home. Mind you I was a military brat and all military brats grow up confused about where home is (laughs). Then as an aging arthritic artist sculpting in the dry of the desert is a mercy to my body. The desert with its prickly dangerous beautiful cactus makes you move through it more purposefully and carefully than other landscapes and that it would seem is a life lesson in itself.
SAN: You website has some fairly comprehensive explanations of what inspired specific works, and how you produced them. Your blog has photos and explanations of processes you went through to create a piece. Does this mean you consider yourself as much a teacher of art as an artist?
MA: I taught art for over 10 years. Finally I felt it was becoming more and more a subversive activity to actually attempt to teach art in the construct of the public school system. I’m an artist first though. But, yes I enjoy teaching, but really I think I’m more of a coach than a teacher. The difference being -if you are not interested in art then I’m not really interested in convincing you. But if you are interested and involved, I’m really enthusiastic about sharing some things I’ve learned along the way. I had some great teacher/ coaches, William Woodward for painting at the Corcoran Museum of Art, Harold Isen for drawing at the same school, and Grace Hartigan at MICA. There were also some influential visiting artists like Elaine DeKoonig and Gene Davis, and another who really gave me some insight on seeing and alas, whose name I can’t remember. I hope I can do the same for other.
Merry Mary in her studio
SAN: You have a sculptural workshop coming up in February. Please tell us about that.
MA: I try to do about 4 workshops a year. I only take 6 students per workshop. The workshops are three intensive days. The students often come from out of town as well as local. This is that coach environment - a small group of people committed to learning. I teach the use of a very malleable fiber/paper infused stoneware clay that will survive the kiln. This has great green strength and the flexibility for storytelling as you can change direction quite readily. You can build big and win battles with gravity. The February workshop will be on building the female figure. We will have a model some of the time. There is one opening left. I have students coming from Alabama and Montana as well as out Phoenix way and some repeat local students. We laugh a lot and so far we always win the day. I most probably will be offering a March workshop on building animals. Of course the storytelling element is examined.
SAN: You recently conducted a GoFundMe campaign to help you get medical treatment for your eyes that was not available through your insurance. How did that fundraiser go for you?
MA: The GoFundMe Campaign is a success. What a blessing. It was supported by people who had bought paintings years ago, by my students former and present, by members of the running community, by local artists I have met here in Tucson and friends I have come to know on FB and through my open studios and complete strangers. I heard from other artists facing similar eye problems and sculptors just wanting to support another sculptor. One of the more touching donors was a woman currently undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer and doing a series of narrative sculptures about the losing of her hair and her fears. The eye treatment I need is expensive and not covered by insurance. It involves a home Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Chamber and oxygen concentrator. The cost is $12,612.50. I only set a goal to raise $4,000 on the GoFundMe. Yet so far, these wonderful people have donated $4,710 [now up to $4,845]. One of the most recent donors said “I hope you raise every single penny”. We have gone ahead and ordered the chamber and it’s going to be installed in our home next week. [read Merry Mary’s updates here: http://www.gofundme.com/www-arttoones-com and it's not too late to make a donation!]
MA: I try to do about 4 workshops a year. I only take 6 students per workshop. The workshops are three intensive days. The students often come from out of town as well as local. This is that coach environment - a small group of people committed to learning. I teach the use of a very malleable fiber/paper infused stoneware clay that will survive the kiln. This has great green strength and the flexibility for storytelling as you can change direction quite readily. You can build big and win battles with gravity. The February workshop will be on building the female figure. We will have a model some of the time. There is one opening left. I have students coming from Alabama and Montana as well as out Phoenix way and some repeat local students. We laugh a lot and so far we always win the day. I most probably will be offering a March workshop on building animals. Of course the storytelling element is examined.
SAN: You recently conducted a GoFundMe campaign to help you get medical treatment for your eyes that was not available through your insurance. How did that fundraiser go for you?
MA: The GoFundMe Campaign is a success. What a blessing. It was supported by people who had bought paintings years ago, by my students former and present, by members of the running community, by local artists I have met here in Tucson and friends I have come to know on FB and through my open studios and complete strangers. I heard from other artists facing similar eye problems and sculptors just wanting to support another sculptor. One of the more touching donors was a woman currently undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer and doing a series of narrative sculptures about the losing of her hair and her fears. The eye treatment I need is expensive and not covered by insurance. It involves a home Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Chamber and oxygen concentrator. The cost is $12,612.50. I only set a goal to raise $4,000 on the GoFundMe. Yet so far, these wonderful people have donated $4,710 [now up to $4,845]. One of the most recent donors said “I hope you raise every single penny”. We have gone ahead and ordered the chamber and it’s going to be installed in our home next week. [read Merry Mary’s updates here: http://www.gofundme.com/www-arttoones-com and it's not too late to make a donation!]
MA: I have a one person show January 27th through March 6, 2015 in the Visual Arts Gallery of Central Arizona College in Coolidge. The opening reception is January 27 from 6-8 pm. I’m working to get several new large pieces finished for the show. Probably there will be about 12 pieces mostly large all together. I don’t anticipate doing any out of town shows in the coming year as I’ve blown the budget with the eye treatment. I will, however, be scheduling workshops and finishing a series of large vases. Here’s a sample of one of my vases in process (left).
SAN: Finally, this is a question being asked now of all artists interviewed by SAN. What do you think would make life easier for artists in Tucson and in our region?
MA: Well, I’m brokenhearted that Obsidian Gallery which was a great venue for ceramic sculptors has closed. So I really would like to see another gallery of their quality and concentration set up shop here in Tucson. Personally, I really would love to see more people show up at my open studios. But in recent years the biggest problem has been the cost of shipping work to galleries in California and Montana and New Mexico because there is not much of a market right here in Arizona.
But there is just one more thing, recently as a member of the Contemporary Art Society of the Tucson Museum of Art, I advertised one of my workshops in their newsletter. In the advertisement they removed the M.F.A. from after my name. They could give me no reason other than they don’t use anybody’s degree appellations. I find it very disconcerting when a society of an art museum refuses to recognize the efforts, years of work, and expense that an artist goes through to earn an MFA degree, and how that might be a worthwhile thing to include when advertising a teaching workshop. I wonder how that might look as a narrative sculpture (laughs)
See more of Merry ArtToones work at:
http://www.arttoones.com/ Merry Arttoones, M.F.A.
https://www.facebook.com/mary.s.cate.merry.arttoones.mfa?fref=ts
GoFundMe page (medical): http://www.gofundme.com/www-arttoones-com
SAN: Finally, this is a question being asked now of all artists interviewed by SAN. What do you think would make life easier for artists in Tucson and in our region?
MA: Well, I’m brokenhearted that Obsidian Gallery which was a great venue for ceramic sculptors has closed. So I really would like to see another gallery of their quality and concentration set up shop here in Tucson. Personally, I really would love to see more people show up at my open studios. But in recent years the biggest problem has been the cost of shipping work to galleries in California and Montana and New Mexico because there is not much of a market right here in Arizona.
But there is just one more thing, recently as a member of the Contemporary Art Society of the Tucson Museum of Art, I advertised one of my workshops in their newsletter. In the advertisement they removed the M.F.A. from after my name. They could give me no reason other than they don’t use anybody’s degree appellations. I find it very disconcerting when a society of an art museum refuses to recognize the efforts, years of work, and expense that an artist goes through to earn an MFA degree, and how that might be a worthwhile thing to include when advertising a teaching workshop. I wonder how that might look as a narrative sculpture (laughs)
See more of Merry ArtToones work at:
http://www.arttoones.com/ Merry Arttoones, M.F.A.
https://www.facebook.com/mary.s.cate.merry.arttoones.mfa?fref=ts
GoFundMe page (medical): http://www.gofundme.com/www-arttoones-com
