If you’re listening to this podcast, you already know that there are so many reasons that art is important. It not only beautifies our surroundings, but it is a reflection of the world around us. For Mary Farmer, an artist with a long history as a women’s rights and social justice activist, art is liberation from the stresses of the world.
Mary is a renowned encaustic painter based in Asheville, who paints portals into a timeless and transcendent state of being. It’s easy to get lost in Mary’s tranquil landscapes and travel to a more peaceful place in your mind, which is exactly what she hopes to achieve. At the center of her practice lies a much more quiet activism, a call to take some much-needed refuge from the onslaught of negativity that surrounds us. Referring to some of her more abstract landscape paintings as “soft landings,” Mary’s work is created to help you slow down and take time to decompress.
Ultimately, rest is a radical and intentional act of resistance in a world that has no pause button. By looking after our physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing, we can gather the energy we need to keep fighting for the causes we believe in. So, sit back, relax, and let Mary Farmer take you on a journey of creative self-care!
Key Points From This Episode:
- The quiet activism at the heart of Mary’s practice
- Ways that Artsville offers healing, friendship, and comfort
- How art provides opportunities for deeper connection
- The ‘mental vacation’ that art offers us in a post-COVID world
- Important causes that Mary and Louise have advocated for together
- Insight into Mary’s decision to reincorporate activism into her artwork
- When Mary’s commitment to women’s rights began
- Using art to translate the spiritual connection with nature that one feels in Asheville
- Where Mary gets the energy to keep fighting for the causes she believes in
- The importance of speaking loudly and clearly about social justice through art
- An understanding of Mary’s focus on comfort, shelter, and beauty
- Why we have to make time for rest and self-care in today’s world
- Attracting attention to the arts as a form of activism
- Mary’s approach to marketing as a “mutual exchange of pleasure”
- A look at the global community of International Encaustic Artists
- Nurturing a mass market for original art to give artists a better livelihood
- The responsibility that artists have to put their work out there
- Bringing art, education, and activism under one umbrella with Artsville
Tweetables:
“If you find a piece of art that speaks to you, it gives you peace of mind. You can take that mental vacation.” — Mary Farmer [0:07:42]
“There are psychological studies that show if you just think about a vacation, you feel better. So, why not sit in front of a piece of art, look at it, [and think], ‘This is soothing’ or ‘This stimulates something pleasant in me,’ to give yourself a break?” — Mary Farmer [0:30:35]
“There are all kinds of challenges [that come with being an artist]. You have to make choices. It’s all about choices that you make about what you do.” — Mary Farmer [0:49:04]
Longer Quotes:
“I have been an activist for a very long time. I made a choice after I finished art school to no longer put activism in my work. However, in a post-COVID world, that may change a little bit. If you’ve seen my work, you know that I talk about comfort, shelter, and beauty. This is not because I just want you to be in a pretty space. I want you to take that rest to your soul and give yourself comfort, shelter, and beauty, because we are lambasted every day with stuff and everything is polarized now. Everything. As hard-working people, we need breaks.” — Mary Farmer [0:03:54]
“[Activism] is an ongoing process. Your commitment will be tested over and over again. Giving up is often an option. You just think, ‘I want to give up. I’m tired of this.’ Keeping energized, I think, is the hardest part. To energize myself, I hit a journal most mornings to do a brain dump, get that crap out of my head, and then I can go forward and make art.” — Mary Farmer [0:26:05]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Mary Farmer — https://www.maryfarmer.com/
Mary Farmer on Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/MaryFarmerArtist/
Ep. 12: Looking at the World Differently with Kenn Kotara — https://www.artsvilleusa.com/looking-at-the-world-differently-with-kenn-kotara/
International Encaustic Artists — https://www.international-encaustic-artists.org/
Thrive Asheville — https://www.thriveavl.org/
Artsville Podcast — https://artsville.captivate.fm/
Scott “Sourdough” Power — https://www.notarealartist.com/
Louise Glickman — https://www.louiseglickman.com/
Daryl Slaton — http://www.tailsofwhimsy.com/
Crewest Studio — https://creweststudio.com/
Sand Hill Artists Collective (SHAC) — https://sandhillartists.com/