Meet Marjorie Taylor Gavitt
Marjorie Taylor Gavitt is a mixed media artist who is featured in Grounding, a three-person show on display at Art Work Gallery for October and November 2023.
Artist Biography
Marjorie Taylor Gavitt studied Fine Art and Art Education at Northwestern Connecticut Community College and Southern Connecticut University. During her more than 35-year career in Marketing Communications, she received further education in graphic arts, digital design, and videography. Marjorie engaged in the arts outside of her career, further developing skills in acrylic painting, fiber arts, sculpture, printmaking, and mixed media work.
Currently, she utilizes many of these media in her work. She has exhibited in galleries in Ithaca, NY; Litchfield, CT; Denver and Golden, CO; Oxford, Aston, Audubon and Phoenixville, PA. View more of Majorie’s artwork by following Art by MTG on Facebook and Instagram.
Artist Statement
Most of my life I have lived in an area where history is revered, and the limited natural resources are jealously guarded. Change often occurs slowly, and with much debate. However, nature has other ideas: change is constant. And Mother Nature retakes what is hers over and over again. This impermanence, the continual and cyclical change, has become the driving force behind my creative efforts. The evolution of humanity, nature, and climate provides a ready reference for artistic endeavor.
I walk outdoors almost every day, often choosing “the path less traveled” - narrow dirt paths through woods and around fields. As I wander, my thoughts are on the inhabitants, past and present. Walking in nature reveals home to generations, cabins, tents, stone dwellings, or a ragged blanket at the edge of the river. Bridges span rivers and tiny streams, providing access to towns, villages, and individual dwellings. Some of these destinations exist in a new form; others are only evident in the fragments that are left. Remnants of railroads crisscross the landscape: a section of rusty rail, a few rotted ties, and some nails, or just a flattened, elevated path. These are all inspiration for my artwork.
Although most of my works are abstract in nature, they usually contain representational elements, and are responsive to the environment around me. Sometimes my work begins with a photograph I have taken of a crumbling wall, a rusty track, or a river crossing. Images of nature may also be included. These may be altered or combined, and printed or transferred to paper or fabric. Then various materials - some new, some created and others repurposed - are selected to represent or enhance the image. Finally, I draw, ink, print, stencil, and paint to flesh out my vision of the subject. I consider my artwork to be an interpreted documentation of a moment in time, and challenge the viewer to consider how this image makes them think about the past, present, and future.
From left to right.