“Confetti” fibre art collages by Mary Pressman

Reception: Saturday, March 2nd from 2pm-4pm

Art is a second career for Mary. After graduating from Princeton University, she attended N.Y.U. Medical School and became a psychiatrist. Many years later she pivoted and studied at the Art Students’ League, working primarily in watercolor and fibre art. Then she obtained an MFA at The City College of New York, CUNY.

Original wallpaper “Night” was accepted to “Printfest,” International Print Center, group exhibition in fall, 2019. Thereafter her focus shifted to wood which she pursued at the Bentwood Studio in Carmel, New York.  A hand carved bowl made from koa and a mobile were Mary’s contributions to the graduate student group exhibition “Absence and Presence” in September, 2019. Her solo thesis exhibition “Dancing in the Dark”, in March 2020, examined the interplay between the movement of large-scale mobiles and the shadows they cast. Just as objects are accompanied by shadows, so also our lives move between joyfulness and loss, birth and death.

“Confetti” builds on these themes. Confetti is the chaotic expression at celebrations, in which tiny pieces of paper, petals, seeds and grain are thrown. We experience abandon as they shower us with color and sometimes meaning as at a wedding, where they may symbolize good fortune, happiness and fertility. The show offers viewers a moment of escape, refuge and peace in a world which is so often stressful and anxiety provoking.

Mary is most influenced by the writing of Drs. Bernie Siegel and Elizabeth Kübler-Ross who recognized the influence of beliefs in medicine, as I do in art. My work reflects my faith in God, the greatest artist of all. She invites you to this exhibit with gratitude to past mentors Timothy Clark, Knox Martin, Tom Thayer and Ernie Palmieri.