Professional Information

MARY WEYMARK GOSS

Artist and Writer
Box 279 Moonbeam, Ontario P0L 1V0
Telephone:(705) 367-2420
E-mail: maryrgoss@live.ca

Web sites:
Art http://mwg1.blogspot.com
Books http://flutterbookpress.blogspot.com


SELECTED RECENT EXHIBITIONS

2008 Cobalt Artists Colony 50th retrospective, Englehart
2008 Moonbeam Arts Festival, group exhibit
2008 Moonbeam Art Gallery
2007 Moonbeam Arts Festival, group exhibit
2007 Leonard Cultural Centre
2006 Moonbeam Arts Festival, group exhibit
2005 Moonbeam Arts Festival, group exhibit
2005 Kapuskasing Centre de Loisirs, new work
2004 Moonbeam Arts Festival, group exhibit
2003 Moonbeam Arts Festival, group exhibit
2002 Moonbeam Arts Festival, group exhibit
2001 Interfaces Online, group exhibit
2001 Arts Circle gallery, Kapuskasing
2000 Kapuskasing Heritage Festival
2000 Kapuskasing Centre de Loisirs, new work
1999 Hearst Gallery, new work
1998 Centre de Loisirs, Kapuskasing; group exhibit
1997 Temiskaming Library/Gallery; new work
1996 75th Anniversary Art Exhibit, Kapuskasing Civic Center; new work
1995 Timmins Hospital; new work


PUBLISHED WORKS by Mary Weymark Goss

Paleozoic Series, complete paintings, drawings and notes (flutterbook press)
A Book of Complaints, poetry and drawings (flutterbook press)
Drawings of Rural Moonbeam, limited edition folio
In Hiding, poetry and drawings (Penumbra Press)
Journals, Northward Journal
The Poetry of Allan Brown, critical essay, Northward Journal

drawings, poems and commentaries in various publications


ILLUSTRATIONS

Moondance ezine
Le Musée des Lèvres by Sylvie Filion (Le Nordir)
Looking Out/Looking In by R.B.Adler, N.Towne, J.Rolls (Harcourt Canada)
Writers' Magazine
Black Moss Magazine
Northward Journal Magazine
Inscription Rock by Gordon Johnston
Country You Can't Walk In by M.T. Kelly
The Burden of Joseph ben Amittai by Allan Brown


SELECTED RECENT WORKSHOPS, COMMUNITY PROJECTS & ARTS ADVOCACY (conducted by M.W. Goss)

1996-2008 Arts Circle Community Art Group, director, Kapuskasing; free year-round programs including community workshops, painting & drawing; projects for community groups; consultation for adults and students (unfunded)
2008 St. Rita Public School book publishing project
2007 NOAA workshops
2005 André-Cary Public School, grade six mural project
1998-2004 Arts Circle art gallery (for local non-professional and student artists)(unfunded)
2003 Val Rita public school, techniques of the Group of Seven
1999 Youth Centre free workshop for teens (volunteer)
1998-1999 Student Mural Projects, Diamond Jubilee Public School (unfunded)
1998 Art for Children’s Aid Project (unfunded)
1997-1999 Regional Artists Showcases at local mall & high school
1998 Cobalt Artists Colony
1997 Kapuskasing; St. John's group workshop, mixed media
1997 Cobalt Artists Colony
1996 curator, Kapuskasing 75th anniversary Art Exhibit, civic centre (unfunded)
1996 Smooth Rock Falls High School; painting & drawing
1995-6 Kapuskasing Regional Resource Center for Independent Living; community art workshops
1995 Kapuskasing District High School; computer art and desktop publishing
1995 Cité des Jeunes; student workshops on writing, illustrating and publishing books for children; continuing consultation
1995 Kapuskasing District High School; grade nine poetry workshop
1994 Collège Universitaire de Hearst (Kapuskasing); teachers' workshops on pastel techniques and anatomy for grade school students
1994 Diamond Jubilee Public School, Kapuskasing; 16-week workshop, drawing and painting
1994 teachers' workshops, Kapuskasing; watercolour techniques
1994 Diamond Jubilee Public School, Kapuskasing; grade 3, drawing faces
1993 École Jeanne d'Arc, Fauquier; 16-week workshop, drawing and painting
1993 École Sacre Coeur, Kapuskasing; grade four workshop, anatomy drawing
1993-4 Kapuskasing District High School; open workshops Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the school year
1993 Collège Universitaire de Hearst (Kapuskasing); teachers' workshop on gouache and drawing techniques for primary school students


GRANTS & JURIES

2007 jurist and speaker, Northern Ontario Arts Association annual meeting
1999 jury, Ontario Arts Council Senior grants
1999 juror, Northern Telephone phone book cover
1994 Ontario Arts Council artists in schools, Kapuskasing
1993 Ontario Arts Council artists in schools, Fauquier
1993 Ontario Arts Council artists in schools, Kapuskasing

Ontario Arts Council materials assistance for various exhibits


COLLECTIONS

Quatrain Mural project, Chapleau
Ontario Northland Telecommunications
Sensenbrenner Hospital, Kapuskasing
J.S. Redpath
Timmins Hospital
Ministry of Government Services, Provincial Court, North Bay

Private collections in Canada the United States and Great Britain

OTHER EXPERIENCE

2005-2009 member Moonbeam Artists Association
2007-2009 member Northern Ontario Arts Association
2005 Leonard Cultural Centre committee (Moonbeam)
2005 volunteer art instructor, World of Work adult workshop
2001-2005 coordinator, Moonbeam Arts Festival
1995-2005 director, The Arts Circle, community arts center, Kapuskasing
1995-2005 advisory board, Habitat Interlude shelter for women, Kapuskasing
2001 Art instructor, Kapuskasing District High School
1998 board of directors, Kap Alpha literacy for adults, Kapuskasing
1996 consultant/coordinator, Heritage Gallery, Kapuskasing
1972-5 Artistic consultant and instructor for City of Thunder Bay

Biography

Mary Weymark Goss – A Biography

Born in Belleville, Ontario in 1950, I was surrounded by art and artists, and encouraged from an early age to draw, paint and write. Both my mother and grandmother were artists and diarists, and an uncle was a published author. I was taught to read and write before I went to school, and given free access to abundant art supplies and the books that filled our house.

At school, I was always recognized for my art and writing, and by the time I was fifteen, I was selling paintings and doing some freelance commercial work, such as illustrations, posters and invitations. After graduating from high school, I rented a downtown studio space with some colleagues, worked part time and spent the rest of my time painting and writing. Several of my colleagues went on to art college, but I was not interested in the courses being offered. I was developing my own style and ideas for my art, and I had already produced a theme-based series of paintings and shown my work. I was eager to pursue my stylized portraits and scenery, and travel along the North shore of Lake Superior, in the footsteps of the Group of Seven.

In 1971 I moved to North Bay, and continued to hike and paint outdoors. I had a part-time job as an art instructor for the city, and exhibited regularly at a local gallery. It was in North Bay that I met my husband, David, and when he graduated from university, we moved to Kapuskasing, where he had been hired as a forester. We had two children, and eventually bought a large old home on a lake in the country.

Kapuskasing inspired me with its flat remoteness and clean white winters. At that time, I was interested in the Pre-Raphaelites, and produced a series of romanticized portraits. These were starkly contrasted by my ink work, which featured the crisp clean lines of the northern landscape. John Flood, of Penumbra Press, lived down the road, and he commissioned many ink drawings for his magazine and poetry books. Writer’s Quarterly also used many of my ink drawings. In 1984 Penumbra Press published a small book of my drawings and poems, and a series of serigraphs.

Although I enjoyed publishing, I felt I was moving away from my original ideals. I wanted to keep changing, exploring new styles and techniques, and I did not want to be tied to my ‘popular’ work. It is very difficult to break away from the expectations of publishers, critics and fans. In 1985 I broke completely away from my very popular oil and ink works, and began a new series, Sgraffito. I covered my canvases with oil, scribbled and scratched into it, then painted on top. The results were indeed completely different. I lost my fan club, and felt liberated. And I discovered that there was a different fan club out there, and my paintings still sold.

In 1986, I began the longest series of paintings I had ever done, the Raven Series. At the time I was working on my first novel, Raven, which was never published. The writing and painting were deeply intertwined, and large excerpts from the novel were displayed with the paintings at exhibits. The Raven Series had over 100 pieces, and gave me a connection to the public I had never had. People stayed a long time at the exhibit, reading the excerpts and discussing the paintings; I received letters with raven paraphernalia, stories and personal experiences; I received phone calls from strangers who felt connected to certain paintings. There was even a small scandal, when a group of well-meaning elderly ladies tried to have the exhibit closed, on the grounds that it was ‘the work of the devil’. All that red and black upset them, and it is surprising how many people think ravens are evil.

Once again, I found it difficult to break away from a popular series. I was well into my next series, Sanctuary, which featured ghostly white birds and convoluted northern vegetation, but everyone was still looking for ravens. Galleries wanted the Raven Series, which almost sold out overnight, and patrons insisted my white birds were ravens. The Sanctuary Series became popular eventually, and I knew it was time for another change.

This time the change happened in the middle of a painting. A group of us were painting together in a studio downtown. I was painting the usual leafy stuff and starting on yet another white bird, when the inner child rebelled. I was tired of the same colours and subjects. I looked at my paint box and spied a tube of Cadmium orange that had hardly been used. With great glee I began to paint the first thing I saw, a large overstuffed (actually brown) chair. I covered half of my meticulously-painted leaves and flowers with an orange chair, then turned the white bird into rather ominous draperies. My colleagues shrieked with horror as I added a hideous vase to hold the one leaf I had not painted out, and a figure floating incongruously over the chair. The Orange Chair series was born.

The Orange Chair series became, in its own way, even more popular and difficult to shake than the Raven Series. This time, it was my fellow artists who were obsessed. They began tucking little orange chairs into their paintings and dedicating them to me. They painted chairs orange and brought them to the studio. They insisted I must have orange chairs at home (wrong). The orange chair became another icon, another character that followed me around long after I was done with it.

The Anomaly Series, which is ongoing, has had several sub-sequences, such as the Paleozoic Series. When I was diagnosed with Lupus in 2000, I was looking for a way to express the changes it made in my life, the pain and disability. My fossilized people, sometimes with holes in them, reached yet another strata of society; people with chronic illnesses and pain. I received many letters commenting on the strength and hopefulness of the images. I began work on ‘A Book of Complaints’, the first ‘ink’ work I had done in years. Because of the arthritis associated with Lupus, I was unable to use pen and ink, but instead turned to a tablet and stylus on the computer. The poem and images are typical of the rather humorous way I view life and its problems.

When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2008, I found myself separated from my art, or unable to do it, for weeks at a time, as I went through surgeries and chemotherapy. It was difficult for me to get back to my large studio pieces, so I began painting in printed books, very casually and roughly, and writing thoughts in them. I worked on small canvases and allowed my mind to roam. I lay in hospital beds, thinking about a new series.

In 2009, during chemo and further surgery, I concentrated on smaller works. I began painting in books and manuals, first priming the pages, then working in various mediums, including oils, acrylics and coloured pencils. Soon I had several painted books in progress; 'Growth', 'What is This?', 'A Vision of Being' and 'PageScapes'.

My longtime collaborator and friend, desean, suggested we resurrect our book-making project, flutterbook press. We published my 'Book of Complaints' and a portfolio of the Paleozoic Series, as well as several of desean's books. At present I am working on the Raven Series Porfolio and a volume of my journals.

My latest series of paintings, Four Horizons, is well under way.