Mary Boxley Bullington

November-December 2011: Works available

2011-11-26T08:26:00.001-05:00

Green Meanders.

Acrylic and gesso on paper, 30 x 22, unframed (framed: 37" x 29").

Under the Boardwalk.
Tinted gesso over acrylic and mixed media, 19" x 19."
Perhaps all paths should lead toward summer.

Fortune's Fools.
2-sided ornament collages on acid-free cardstock or rag paper, sizes range between 3" x 5 to 5" x 7" or so, very irregular. Strung with fishing line on a swivel. (They are not and will not be glued to the background you see here, but rather are designed to hang free and spin.)
We human beings are all Fortune's Fools. Am in the process of creating an entire race of these. Each is an orginal and each side is one-of-a kind.

Standing on Earth, Walking on Air.

Acrylic and mixed media collage on paper, 30 x 20."

Sometimes I don't see the big picture until a piece is done. When I put this collage on the mantelpiece to study it before I framed it, I realized that only the bottom third of these folk are standing on the lawn--the rest seem to be floating in the sky. Somehow, this seemed OK--we humans stand on solid ground only about one-third of the time. (PS: The cat and the blue bird are quite whole at the top of this collage-- I cropped too much of the photo while editing it, alas.)

Arrival of the Magi.

Acrylic, gesso, gouache and oil pastel on paper, 30" x 22."

Only after I photographed this piece did I see the Madonna inpale orange and royal purple with the pink baby (unswaddled, evidently, as in St. Bridget's dream) lying across her lap. With that, a whole host appeared, as it frequently does in Infancy stories. Were they shepherds or kings? The yellow star bursting in the East (right, top corner) clued me in. Somewhere in their colorful midst I began to see camels, horses, angels--and shimmering vessels filled with gold, frankincense, and bitter myrrh.

The Tao.

Acrylic, gesso, oil pastel, and collage of painted paper on paper, 20" x 16 1/2."

I was struggling with my colors one day when I realized I had to relax and let the struggle go. Later, when the piece was lying askew on the floor, I saw a figure elaborately robed walking across a Chinese mountain-scape. The other day, my friend Rick observed that the pilgrim might be riding a rose-colored horse.

Fourth Trumpet (aka Caedmon's Hymn).

Acrylic and gesso over mixed media collage of painted papers, 22" x 25 1/2."

A blast of color and pattern over more color and pattern--like a bottomless pile of freshly fallen leaves.

The Studio.

Acrylic and mixed media collage-painting on paper, 22 x 23 1/2."

This still life is what I call a "palette picture"--ahhh, the alchemy of colors!

The Sea-Angel.

Acrylic, gesso, charcoal, & oil pastel on paper, 22" x 22."

A cataclysm. And there in its very midst, an angel orchestrating the chaos.

Cherries Ripe.
Acrylic, gesso, & oil pastel on paper, 22" x 22."

Nine years ago, I planted a sour cherry in my back yard,

and in early June, my friends come and pick and make splendid pies.

Threading the Blue Maze.

Acrylic,gesso, oul pastel and charcoal on paper.

21" x 20," unframed (28" x 28" matted and framed.)

What can I say? Some people will thread it, and some just won't.


Alter-Egos.Acrylic, gesso, oil pastel on paper.

(Out for a night on the town, the women are timid until

a magician in a tall hat steps into the picture and unleashes their bold, true selves.)

Red Comet.

Acrylic, oil pastel and mixed media on paper, 30" x 22.

When the red comet comes at you, stand back!

Dear John Deere.

Acrylic, gesso and oil pastel on paper, 30" x 22."

This is not an ad for tractors.

Business Angel.

Acrylic, charcoal and other stuff on paper, with collage, 22" x 30."

In the economy, we need all the business angels we can get.

Chain Reaction.

Acrylic and gesso on paper, 21" x 21."

I loathe chain reactions--you know, you open a cabinet and a jar of herbs jumps out and hits the jar of olive oil on the counter below and they both fall to the floor and smash, and there you are in your bare feet with oil and oregano and broken glass everywhere. Damnation and hellfire! But it's part of the rhythm of life.

Message to Belgrade.

Acrylic and oil pastel to be collaged on gessoed birch plywood as soon as I buy some, 30" x 31."

I titled this, originally, "Message from Belgrade," because the morning I laid it out, I had been chatting on Facebook with a nice university librarian in Belgrade. But the picture is very cheery, whereas my associations with Serbia are not at all cheery, thanks to recent history. Then my friend Dan way out west messaged me that he had just moved to Belgrade, Montana, where he set up a new classical guitar-making shop. That fit, so I sent him a message with an image of this piece.

Alphabet for a Runcible Cat.

Acrylic, gesso, oil pastel, india ink, stitchery tape and what not on rag museum board, 31 x 30."

Have no idea what a runcible cat is (if you know, tell me!), but bet he'd like this alphabet.

Centrifugal Family.

Acrylic and mixed media collage, 10" x 10."

Could not for the life of me recall the phrase "nuclear family," but had an image of a family going round and round, as the red background suggests. The redhead was s'posed to be the mother, and the brunette the daughter,but whether this is so, you may decide.

X Marks the Chromosome.

Acrylic, gesso, oil pastel, charcoal on paper, 28 5/8" x 14 1/4."

The title refers to the "girly" color pink (really, pale coral!) in this painting. Have a customer who dislikes pink and told me so--and then I spent a whole summer obsessively painting pink and near-pink pictures, damn it! The best of that series was called "All Girls Hate Pink"--my sentiments when I was little and my favorite color at the time was the deep sapphire ultramarine blue of my first bicycle. But as I've matured, I find I like pink--a word which alludes to an astounding variation of light red and light orange-red and pale magenta. It's a lovely part of the spectrum. When they were courting, Bill deKooning painted his wife Elaine's bedroom all manner of wonderful flesh-tones and pinks.

October Light (aka "Goodbye, Aunt Laramie").
Acrylic and mixed media collage-painting on rag board, 22" x 25."

Stay tuned for the story on this one!

(PS have yet to proofread and edit, so pardon my typos and errors. Hope some of them are entertaining!)

new work spring-summer 2011

2011-06-08T12:56:00.018-04:00

"The Rapture."

Collage of painted papers on painted rag board, in progress.

Approx 30" x 30."

Cherries Ripe.

Acrylic, gesso, oil pastel on paper.
22" x 22" (approx 30" x 30", matted and framed)

Cherries ripen in my backyard.
I didn't work from the photograph,
but snapped it abt the same time I painted "Cherries Ripe" above.

Second Trumpet.
Acrylic, gesso, oil pastel on paper, with bits of collage.
22" x 22."

Desert Father.

Oil over acrylic and gesso on paper.
22" x 29 3/4."

Cling-Clang Goes the Train.
Acrylic, gouache, oil pastel and gesso on paper.
22" x 22" (framed: approx 29" x 29.")

Dear John Deere.
Acrylic, oil pastel, gesso, and charcoal on paper.
30" x 22." (Matted and framed: 38" x 30.")
(Image modified since this photo was taken.)

Zinnias.
Acrylic, gesso, gouache, and oil pastel on paper.
30" x 22" (Approx 38" x 30," matted and framed.)
SOLD.

Red Comet.
Acrylic, gesso, gouache and oil pastel on paper.
30" x 22" (Approx 38" x 30," matted and framed.)

Real Writing.
Gesoo and acrylic on rag board, inscribed
with charcoal, colored pencil. and oil pastel.
Approx 10" x 20."

Between the Idea and the Reality.

Mixed media collage of painted paper on painted paper.
12 3/4" x 11 7/8"h (20 1/8" x 19," matted and framed)

Tijuana, 1953.
Mixed media collage of painted papers on collage on wood, 2011.
24" x 24."
SOLD.

Among Dogs and Stars.
Mixed media collage of painted papers on painted paper.
8 3/4" x 21 3/4" (approx 16" x 29")

First Trumpet.
Acrylic, gesso, oil pastel on rag paper.
22" x 22" (framed: approx 29" x 29.")

X marks the Chromosome.
Acrylic, gesso, gouache and oil pastel on rag board.
28 1/4" x 14 1/8" (Matted and framed: Approx 36 1/2" x 22.")

Plenitude.
Acrylic and gesso on paper mounted on rag board.
30" x 22."
SOLD.

Where is the Dog?
Mixed media collage of painted papers on paper.
24" x 22" (matted and framed: 31" x 29")

I've Got a Secret.
Acrylic and gesso on paper.
22" x 22" (framed: approx 26" x 26.")

The Tao.

Mixed media collage of painted papers on painted paper.
20" x 16 1/2" (27" x 23 1/2," framed)

Joseph's Coat.
Acrylic, gouache and gesso over collage of painted papers on paper.
24 3/4" x 22" (32 3/4" x 30," framed.)

Elliptical.
Gesso, India ink, acrylic, and oil pastel on paper.
20" x 20" (approx 27" x 27," framed.)

Can't see the Forest--.
Mixed media collage on painted papers on painted paper.
21 3/4" w x 22" (28" x 28," framed).

Sanctuary.
Acrylic and gesso on paper inscribed with charcoal and oil pastel.
25 1/2" x 22."
SOLD.

Alpha Spring.
Mixed media collage of painted papers on painted rag board.

Only the Crow Knows.
Gesso and acrylic on rag board.
Approx 9" x 10."

Fear Not.
Gesso tinted with acrylic inscribed with oil pastel and charcoal (on paper).

Chain of Contradictions.
Acrylic and gesso on paper.
20" x 20 3/8" (27 x 27 3/8," framed)

Sirius Energy.
Acrylic, gesso on paper, 10 3/8" x 9 7/8" (15 1/2" x 15 1/4" framed).

Here We Go 'round the Prickly Pear.
Acrylic, gesso, oil pastel on paper.
21 3/4" x 16 3/4" (framed: 28 1/2" x 23 1/2.")

Poppy's Spring Garden.
Acrylic and gesso over collage of painted papers.
24 x 22."
SOLD.

The Locusts: The Evolution of a Collage ( 1/8/11)

2011-01-10T15:30:00.006-05:00

A true and verifiable Story told and illustrated by the artist,
Mary Boxley Bullington

The Locusts, a mixed media collage of papers painted and scribbled with acrylic, gesso, charcoal, and oil pastel on rag board, 26 1/4" x 29 1/4." Created July 1-Oct. 1, 2010.

Genesis
July 1, 2010:

'Twas was midsummer, traditionally a time of relative leisure and gaiety.

I started on a new collage in my studio.
The Locusts were to be a fun piece in a "bug" series," designed to be shown in a gallery window in mid-July.

The Locusts, ca. July 4, 2010.

The first phase (above) was finished in a few days. I just needed to paint in a more cheerful background color, and the collage would be done.

But NO!--I didn't like the bug eyes. Maybe they were too much the same. Or maybe I just didn't like the piece itself.

After all, summer 2010 was a dismaying time. In April, soon after the Haitian earthquake and the eruption of the volcano in Iceland, the Gulf of Mexico exploded with a massive oil spill that threatened to inundate even the Atlantic Ocean. We were told in May--pretty accurately, as it turned out-- would take until August to contain the spill, which is still in the process of being cleaned up and investigated. Thousands of people's livelihoods in Louisiana and Mississippi looked to be wiped out.

Anyway, I didn't like the bugs' dern eyes. So I started experimenting. Got out my box of human eyes and tried one set after another. No dice. They were almost all too small. So began ferreting through the crate of human heads (and other body parts) I keep under a table in my smaller studio.

The Locusts, second phase, mid-July.

So I started experimenting. Got out my box of human eyes and tried one set after another. No dice. They were almost all too small. So began ferreting through the crate of human heads (and other body parts) I keep under a table in my smaller studio.

Revelations
I gave them human faces from my stockpile of heads and such. (I'd had this King's face at least 2-3 years). I also toyed with the idea of giving the king human hands--two fateful decisions that changed the entire tenor of the work.

I knew from my studies as a medievalist the reference to medieval hybrids I was suddenly working with. This was literally an apocalyptic synthesis--

--it was a team of composite creatures related directly to the 8th chapter of Revelations--and to the Spanish illuminations of that chapter I had pored over for years. I had titled one of chapter heads in my dissertation "And the Shapes of the Locusts Were like unto Horses . . ."

(For a wonderful image of some 1oth century Locusts in illuminations to the Spanish Beatus Apocalypse, Google http://rpmedia.ask.com/ts?u=/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/B_Valladolid_120.jpg/95px-B_Valladolid_120.jpg)

Third phase: I fitted Queen Locust with a sad, pretty face--
I loved this face, but it wasn't menacing enough to be the countenance of an Apocalyptic Locust. Anything but--

The Locusts, approaching end of phase 2: Queen Locust acquires a jester's face. This didn't seem right, either.

So I went into my other studio where I was working on a different collage--

From my larger studio July 2010: an early, unglued stage of the small work soon to become "Centrifugal Family"--

The face center left was pointed in exactly the right direction to be cut out and transposed to the queen locust.
But she was pretty friendly. Some acrylic mixed with gesso would change that!

The Locusts, phase 3: The queen locust with the new face I'd harvested from the grouping of ladies I'd been set to collage.

But of course, if I removed the lady on the left, 'twould mean I had to rework the smaller collage--
and so I did--

Completely.
This collage became "Centrifugal Family." The semicircles under the red paint are all that remain of the lady is the blue hat. That's the beauty of collage.

Meanwhile, I was still tweaking the locusts' bodies--especially the legs, bellies, and wings.

Apocalypse Now.

Pretty soon, I thought I was set--the queen had a new face, and I'd painted the background a nice shade of yellow.
I was finished!

But when I took it out of my studio and set it up so I could look at it for a day, I saw that it was too crowded, and worse, the king locust looked very familiar, disturbingly so.

King Locust resembled, oh dear--he was--

Osama bin Locust!

Not exactly the kind of bug you want to put in a gallery window in downtown Roanoke, Virginia in the middle of a very hot summer.

What to do?
Well, first, I had to paint a whole newline-up of male heads. And iIf I didn't want them to look like Osama, I would need a more conscious reference. Classical, I thought. Jupiter! I painted a series of Zeuses and threw in a couple of Dionyses for good measure, then chopt them up and masked and re-masked until I had one

I thought might do.
At the same time, I started experimenting with larger backgrounds.

The Locusts, 8/7/10.

But pretty soon
Zeus Locust began to bother me.
He looked a bit diffident--kind of like Colin Firth before
he conquers his stammer in "The King's Speech."

OK. I gave him some sharp teeth--and made his eyebrows madder.
You get the idea.)

My neighbor Molly came over: "That's scary," she said.
The teeth

had to go.

But, oh dear, by this time, I had used up all my Greek godheads.
I went rooting around again through old stuff and came up with

NO--
I came up with
an enormous human head with enormous charcoal eyes.

He was much too yaller
(took no picture, so you'll have to magine the skin here to be a fine pale yellow ochre)
and much, much too big.
But never mind, I liked his eyes.

So I chopt the head into 2 or 3 sections, trimming brow and cheeks, and cut chin
almost completely off. Then I squushed the pieces back together again. The distortion
was good. It made the face look

rather --determined.
I glued it down and painted it red.

Finally, I cut the locusts off their background sheet so I could give them the scorpion tails with their not quite deadly stings specified in Revelations 8:

--the Queen's tail--

-- and the King's Tail.

The bugs were almost done.
I greened the King's eyebrows and gave him blue burns
& a blue goatee .

But fair is fair.
I gave the queen

a new coiffure.

Then
glued them in the center of a nice red-brick patio--

--and finally, October 1, 2010, The Locusts were done.

--MBB, Roanoke, VA
1/11/11

The Locusts, finished (10-1-10)

2010-09-30T08:11:00.006-04:00

The Locusts. Finally finished, 10-1-10!
Mixed media collage of painted papers on painted rag board, 29 1/8 x 26 1/16,"
unframed. $2000.

In Retrospect: Collages 2000-2010

2010-08-25T21:33:00.024-04:00

In the Garden District. 22" x 23."
Mixed media collage of painted papers on painted paper.
SOLD.

Centrifugal Family. 15" x 14.5."
Mixed media collage of painted papers on painted paper.
300.

Detail from Zombie Jamboree.
(Full image below.)

Zombie Jamboree.
Mixed media collage of painted papers on painted paper, 22 x 30."
(All the works on this blog are copyrighted by Mary Boxley Bullington, 2010.)

House of Bluegrass.
Mixed media collage of painted papers on painted paper, 30" x 22."

Ladies Go Wild!
Mixed media collage of painted papers on painted paper, 10" x 22."
SOLD.

Amid Ladies and Lions.
Mixed media collage of painted papers on painted paper,
mounted on painted and inscribed rag board, 32 1/4" x 22."

Summer's End. 22" x 22."
Mixed media collage of painted papers on painted paper.

House of Bluegrass: paintings and collages

2010-08-11T13:58:00.009-04:00

Run, Fox, Run. (c. mbb 2010)
Detail. (see full image below--)

Run, Fox, Run. (c. mbb 2010)
Detail of 22" x 30" mixed media work on paper. SOLD.

House of Bluegrass. (c. mbb 2010)
Mixed media collage on paper, 22" x 29 1/4," unframed.
$1000.

Gliding over the Quarries. (mbb 2010)
Acrylic and mixed media on paper, 30" x 22," unframed.
$1000.

Detail of Small Town Sax-Player. (c. mbb 2010)
Acrylic and mixed media collage on paper, 26" x 22." POR

Fire on the Mountain. (c. mbb 2010)
Acrylic & mixed media collage on paper, 22" x 24." SOLD.

Reinventing the Wheel: Abstract paintings and collages

2010-08-02T14:17:00.019-04:00

The Fiery Ether.
Acrylic, gesso and mixed media on paper, 22" x 30," unframed.
$900.

The Fortune Teller Dreams in Red.
Mixed media collage of painted papers on paper, 30" x 22."
Available at The Art Store (see link on home page).

Gliding over the Quarries.
Acrylic and mixed media ob rag paper, 30" x 22."

Falling in Love Again.
Acrylic, gesso, and oil pastel on rag watercolor paper, 23" x 22 1/2," unframed.
$500.

The Saddest Kangaroo.
Acrylic and mixed media on rag paper, 22" x 22," unframed.
$450.

Independence Day.
Acrylic and mixed media on paper, 18" x 18," unframed.
$420.

Now You Know Your ABCs.
Acrylic and mixed media on rag paper, 24" x 22," unframed.
$600.

Diamond in the Rough.

Acrylic, gesso, oil pastel on rag board, 26" x 22," unframed.
$640.

Working on the Building. July 2010.
Acrylic & mixed media on paper, 22" x 30," unframed.
$900.

Reinventing the Wheel.
Collage of painted papers on painted paper, 22" x 29," unframed.
Available at The Art Store (see link on Home page)