Studio Work

In this work, Mary freely explores the themes and ideas that pre-occupy her. Her principal medium is stone and she works this by cutting, splitting, grinding, sandblasting and polishing, her actions mimicking the actions of the elements. Implicit in the medium of stone is the idea of the passage of time – in fact immense geological timescales. Mary sees a tension, a contradiction between the stone’s permanence over millions of years and the changes it is subject to through the forces of erosion and other more abrupt landscape events such as volcanic activity. Considerations of time are at the centre of Mary’s work; carving stone is hard work – it slows you down and makes you take the long view.

At the same time, stone has a long cultural history as one of our principle building materials, and, through sculpture, as a way of communicating our thoughts and feelings to others, both our contemporaries and future generations. Throughout our existence, it has been one of the human race’s fundamental modes of expression.

For exhibitions Mary will often make groups of works, exploring different aspects of a theme; ideas are developed from piece to piece, while within an overarching vision, each individual artwork sits like a verse in poem.