Context is Everything

Plants become weeds when they obstruct our plans, or our tidy maps of the world.
A weed is “a plant in the wrong place.” Richard Mabey

Context is everything; each moment, each decision and each relationship we have in our lives, all the experiences we have had, come together and affect how we respond to stimuli. This project merges the flora of the prairie landscape with the human trait of judging people, events and circumstances too quickly based on our prior knowledge and insight.  It touches the soul of any person that has ever been judged on any level, for their race, their religion, their sexual orientation, even to the point to what they are wearing.

Using the simple weed found in a ditch on the prairies as the impetus, this exhibition is meant to encourage people to take another look, to not just swipe left, and consider the person or the moment more deeply than just on impulse.  This exhibition is timely as we face many new challenges in our legal system and in our reaction to that system.  What makes a weed a weed and not a flower, who decided which are better, weeds can be beautiful.

Please join us for the public Opening Reception of Context is Everything:
Saturday March 2, 2019  |  2 – 4 PM

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Monique Martin is a multi-disciplinary artist and art educator. Her artwork includes painting, sculpture, printmaking, installation, bookmaking and drawing.

Monique’s artwork often utilizes historically significant symbols and images to express her ideas. Many ideas, symbols and meanings are gathered while traveling and seeing new images, studying the masters and meeting other contemporary artists.  Monique researches many of her concepts in detail prior to creating her work.

Every action in life, every interaction and research project undertaken produces an energy that vibrates within her and connects her to the people she in contact with.  Sometimes a small incident, a promise only half-intended, a touch, or a casual remark, can set off a chain of events that will alter lives and change destinies. Like a pebble in a pond, the rings of energy keep moving outward from the initial touch, whether it is physical, emotional, spiritual or mental.  It is in responding to these ever changing ripples in the connections between humans that inspire her work. Her work utilizes ever-changing concepts and images because her art is a way of exploring who she is, who she was, who she is becoming and where she fits into the world around her.

Monique has exhibited, printmaking, paintings, sculptures, installations and book works in more than one hundred ninety solo, invited and juried group exhibitions in ten countries. Her works are held in more than twenty-five public and private collections in nine different countries.  Monique lectures often about her work, with topics ranging from women’s issues to world politics.  Her lectures are thought provoking and often quite moving.  Monique is an experienced professional public speaker and audiences enjoy her animated dialogue about her artwork and life. Monique has lectured at workshops, conferences and taught in classrooms in many countries.

http://moniqueart.com/