Death, Desire and Ecstasy: In the Margins

Holly S. Murray
1996

These paintings represent the outgrowth of work produced after several years of working in a more public arena. Working within a political/social network required great energy and a continued collaboration with a multitude of agencies, people, services and the community at large.I felt a need to return to the studio and reconnect with a more personal visual dialog. The work continues to be centered on my lived experiences as a woman immersed in popular culture. I have draw inspiration from current art practices, art history, memory as well as cultural and social issues. I am exploring the influence of powerful and strong women and women not so powerful who have driven and inspired the work. The reference to margins speaks to the place still reserved for most women. However, within those constraints, as with any, there can be immense freedom, rebellion and indeed ecstasy. Contained in these cultural strictures there are often limits, desperation and despair. The paintings are a pastiche of layered images with multiple and often disperate visual language. In co-mingling these images, the content of the work presents an intimate personal reading but also one that I hope the viewer can assimilate and respond to..