INTROspective: Mar Goman

Mar Goman INTROspective
May 18 - June 16, 2012 • 23 Sandy Gallery

23 Sandy Gallery is pleased to present a second solo show, titled INTROspective, for local artist Mar Goman. This talented multiple-media artist will present a series of unique artist books as well as other work related to books and text. The show will include drawings, paintings, and collages using pages from found books as a surface as well as three-dimensional pieces using book pages and other text.

Much of the work focuses on psycho-spiritual issues such as loneliness, existential angst, love, death, and relationships. Mar tells us, “I tend to work from the dark side of my soul and my work is often about the interior journey, our invisible wounds, and the process of becoming authentic spiritual human beings.”

A self-proclaimed obsessive, Goman often uses the same image many times and tends to produce a large series of whatever kind of object she is working on. A special feature of this new show: a chance to peek inside the artist's inner world. Mar has been keeping personal art notebooks for nearly forty years, and she will have a selection of these in the show for viewers to look through. These notebooks contain drawings and collages, ideas and sketches for pieces and projects, photos of work the artist has found inspirational over the years, travel notes and drawings from museums and archeological sites, class notes, writings about the meaning of art and success and failure as an artist, and other materials that provide a glimpse into the artist’s creative process.

Viewers who peruse the notebooks will be able to see the relationship between the images and ideas they contain and some of the pieces included in the show. Visitors to the gallery are encouraged to allow plenty of time to look through the many books and journals included in the show. Mar Goman typically works in a wide variety of media and materials, including drawing and painting, sculpture and assemblage, collage, book arts, embroidery and fiber constructions. She make use of sticks and stones, buttons, rusty metal, old bottles, vintage fabrics and photographs, old books, and whatever else she can scavenge; cutting, pasting, stitching, printing, painting, assembling, and carving.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mar Goman began showing her work while an undergraduate at Pitzer College in the mid-seventies. She has continued to show in group and solo shows, mostly around the Northwest. Her work has also appeared in a number of books and magazines. Her one-of-a-kind artist books have been placed in collections such as the University of Oregon Art & Architecture Library, the UCLA Fine Art Library, UC Santa Barbara, Oberlin College and Emory University.