Mary Aro

Artist Statement

I paint watercolors on site in the summer. I feel like I am part of the landscape and I forget who I am--my other life--as I become part of the earth and sky, aware of the sounds of birds and animals. I am living inside my painting. After several hours, it is like waking up. I look around at the ground where I have been sitting and find a bit of natural debris to take home to add to the painting's negative space below the thin landscape. Then I pack up and leave.

Other times, my art reflects my children’s and grandchildren’s journeys. My childhood memories layer into my observations of their lives, and their struggles. The process of healing is the process of drawing, erasures and redrawing again over time. As Jack Beal said, art is life, and life is art.