“Going Back to the Beginning”

"We'll Always Have Paris"

© Mary Becker Weiss

My working board is comprised of a number of elements which for all intents and purposes resembles a disparate ransom note: quotes, titles, poetry, scraps of paper, magazine articles, line drawings, postcards, vintage maps, cards and stamps (an addiction), photographs of textures (another addiction) and travel keepsakes. From this menagerie of elements I create assemblages and encaustic collages. By going back to the beginning, I am able to affirm my direction and to stay focused ~ I learn to see with a new perspective.  As Lillian Hellman in Pentimento said, “perhaps it would be well to say that the old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again.” ~ Excerpt from Maine Arts Journal Winter 2019 “Sketchbooks”

"A Love Letter to Victor Hugo"

© Mary Becker Weiss

"A Moveable Feast"

© Mary Becker Weiss

"Emotional Baggage"

© Mary Becker Weiss

"Trust Thy Heart and to What the World Calls Illusion" 

© A collaborative cosmic modulator 

of Mary Becker Weiss and Bill Taylor 

"Undaunted"

© Mary Becker Weiss

Testimonials:

MS from Maryland says: "Your assemblages are particularly strong. I love the detail and cleanness of the small pieces, intimately put together in Two Perspectives and One Vanishing Point. It is somehow very soothing." ~ MS

From a visitor in the Brunswick Outdoor Art Festival: "Your assemblages remind me of that Joseph Campbell guy (Cornell) ~ you know that hermit who lived in his mother's basement all his life...."

Revisiting Old Friends | Dear Friends

  

 

  

© Mary Becker Weiss

Mary Becker Weiss : "Still Tilting at Windmills" and "Exploration" : Homage to Roger Majorowicz

"Still Tilting at Windmills"

© Mary Becker Weiss

From "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes, wherein protagonist Don Quixote fights windmills that he imagines to be giants:

Just then they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain. And no sooner did Don Quixote see them that he said to his squire, "Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. With their spoils we shall begin to be rich for this is a righteous war and the removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless."

"What giants?" asked Sancho Panza.

"Those you see over there," replied his master, "with their long arms. Some of them have arms well nigh two leagues in length."

"Take care, sir," cried Sancho. "Those over there are not giants but windmills. Those things that seem to be their arms are sails which, when they are whirled around by the wind, turn the millstone."

"Exploration"

© Mary Becker Weiss

"Exploration" and "Still Tilting at Windmills" were inspired by Roger Majorowicz' breathtaking welded steel sculptures and created as an homage to his beautiful and exhilarating work.

In a recent tribute to Mr. Majorowicz, a family member said, "Roger brought passion to every thing he did, whether it was building floats for the 4th of July parade, retracing the steps of an 18th century explorer through Central America, raising geese or day lilies, collecting antique axes or tending his huge vegetable garden.

His wish was that he would be remembered by his family and friends when they make or buy a piece of art, visit a gallery or a museum, or give a word of encouragement to an artist. At his core, Roger was an artist. He believed that art captured the meaning of life and made the world a better place."