Season 1: The Chateau Season
Episode 18: Mary Powell
In this episode, I interview Mary Powell, a multi-disciplinary artist from California who describes herself as someone who can get her hands on pretty much anything and everything – a jack-of-all-trades, master of as many trades as possible. Mary has technical training in oil painting, sculpture, and drawing, and over time has explored stained glass, mixed media printmaking, and photography.
She’s tried pretty much any medium that’s out there, at least once or wants to add it to her list. Her creative process is spontaneous and messy – she explains that it’s not the same every time and she doesn’t have a defined approach, but it’s pretty much different almost every single time. She starts with both enthusiasm and a very long time commitment, describing herself as a very messy person who definitely is not tidy with her creative process. She does the thing, gets everything she needs, and lays it all out, acknowledging there’s a lot of inspiration everywhere – from different places, different projects, and pictures she’s found.
Mary explains that she knows where everything is and exactly what she needs next, and gravitates towards whatever interests her in the moment. She gets obsessed with something for a while, and it’s whatever she’s drawn to at that time – whether that’s the subject matter or the materials themselves. She just kind of gets into that headspace and allows her curiosity and immediate interests to guide her creative exploration across multiple disciplines and media.
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