- Mary Tartaro
- Cast Metal Sculpture
Artist's Statement
Images
Making art is a way of engaging the deep mystery found in time spent alone in nature. My form gathering begins as I walk along the trail and find an endless inventory of elements: animal bones, gnarly branches, bird nests, etc. The images are drawn from the expansive wilderness of the subconscious where the forms tell me their story as the picture unfolds. Fragile materials, some once living, are transformed through the alchemy of the metal casting process to one which is everlasting.
Growing up Roman Catholic in New York I was surrounded by statuary both beautiful and disturbing. Blood dripping form flesh, angels stepping on the heads of demons, and the ever-present threat of the serpent fueled my already wild childhood imagination. As an adult, always living in the mountains on both coasts, my sense of spirituality and peace is most felt from nature which carries a similar duality of nurturance and destruction.
In making three dimensional work, I feel like I am realizing my personal icons and conveying an unknown yet strangely universal and familiar mythology.
Process
Bronze casting is a very traditional method. Most artists create a model from oil based clay and foam, then send it off to an art foundry to be cast into metal.
This is where my process differs and is unique. Because I do all of my own foundry work, I am involved in every aspect of the casting and creation. I am present to observe and use every opportunity along the way to deal creatively with all the "Happy Accidents" and shifts in direction that may present themselves. This is a more fluid process that changes along the way. The creative process of transformation from one material to another. I feel this fluidity in the result product which lacks the predictability and stiffness of traditional metal monuments.
My pieces are all suitable for outdoor installations. The surfaces are left monochromatic to allow the elemental nature of the material to speak and the form to sing.
Background on the Artist
Mary Tartaro grew up in New York and got a B.F.A. in Drawing in 1988 from the State University of New York. In 1992 she received an M.F.A. in Sculpture from San Jose State, at the age of 24. San Jose State, located in Silicon Valley, is home to one of the nations largest and best equipped art foundries. She lived in an alternative power community and taught art at SJSU for a couple of years, then moved to Virginia to raise twin boys. She has taught both two- and three-dimensional art at various colleges and universities in Virginia and now lives in Blacksburg with her husband Alan and 13-year-old sons, Soren and Noah. The foundry was build only recently after they completed construction of their own home in rural Blacksburg. Mary offers workshops in metal casting to the public at her facility which is called The Lost Foundry.