After a 30 year career as a graphic designer Marie-Therese morphed into a full time studio artist and promoted her husband Art Patron. She works full time as a studio artist, researcher, author, tutor, casual lecturer at the University of Newcastle and maintains Art Quill Studio at Arcadia Vale. She has written books and her artcloth and works on paper have been widely exhibited nationally and internationally.
Marie-Therese has created two new silkscreening techniques, matrix formatting where a number of images are spliced together to form a matrix and multiplexing with layers of base imagery overworked using resists, transparent paints and mark making media in order to create a densely rich painterly quality to the image.
Her current work explores contemporary socio-political post-graffiti and environmental issues that tries to raise the consciousness of the viewer on contemporary issues. She employs various surface design techniques such as dyeing, over dyeing, discharge, silk screen printing, stamping, digital printing, dye sublimation and hand painting to explore some of these issues.
Marie-Therese does a large amount of research before creating an Artcloth. But on the days of creation, she leaves her mind outside of the studio and works intuitively. Diasetz Suzuki wrote: man is a thinking reed, but his great works are done when he is not calculating or thinking.
What is Graffiti Art?
All of us have witnessed the rise and rise of graffiti art. It has abounded on such surfaces as public buildings, pavements, fences, electricity poles and garbage dumpsters. Millions of dollars have been spent world-wide to eradicate it. It has been labelled as nuisance art by local governments, by the public, fellow artists and art critics alike. For example, in 2008 the Encyclopedia Britannica Online version has defined graffiti as a "form of visual communication, usually illegal, involving the unauthorised marking of public space by an individual or group." Although the common image of graffiti is a stylistic symbol or phrase spray-painted on a wall by a member of a street gang, some graffiti is not gang-related. Graffiti can be understood as anti-social behaviour performed in order to gain attention or as a form of thrill seeking - but in reality it is an expressive form of art.
In the last decade graffiti art has been recognised as a genuine art form. Local governments and building companies have now set aside public spaces for displaying graffiti art as can be seen in Melbourne's CBD in Hosier Lane.
Graffiti in terms of cave art
is defined as the inscriptions of figures, designs or words on rocks or walls or sidewalks. An image created on a rock wall is humankind's oldest form of graphical communication. Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. The term is now associated with the 20th century urban environment. Sometimes graffiti is employed to communicate social and political messages.
On the other hand, Post Graffiti is a reaction to imagery and marks that are illegally created on public property. It incorporates a plethora of materials and techniques that are cloth specific. Imagery has the feel
of, but is not graffiti. It is therefore a reaction against graffiti art in the sense that it takes elements from graffiti art but regurgitates these elements in an unstructured and unfettered manner.
In 2009, Marie-Therese was the curator of the inaugural international ArtCloth exhibition at Fairfield City Museum and Gallery. The exhibition is touring to Orange Regional Gallery, from 9 April to 30 May, Redcliffe City Art Gallery, Queensland from 12 August to 4 September and Wangaratta Gallery, Victoria from 11 December to 23 January 2011. Marie-Therese showed selected slides of works from that exhibition so if you can it would be interesting to see the originals at one of the galleries listed.
