MARSHA KLEIN STUDIO

Wildfire piece, painted drawing, fractured, split face, expressive woodcut quality, black and red inks, resist technique

WildFire piece, red,black inks, resist technique, expressive, volcanic with spine.

WildFire piece, expressive, painted drawing, resist technique, volcanic with spine

The primal experience of the wildfires surrounding our county in 2017, warranted nothing less than primal response, thus my Fire Series, which began ironically enough, the week before the fires started and continued throughout 2018. This was the final painting of the series, repainted from its 2003 origins.

At this point, with the intent to synthesize the mediums, themes and images that have pervaded my lifetime of artmaking, I want to get to the essence of what it is that I have to say, to the heart of the matter, both literally and figuratively. This series, "Heart of the Matter," begun as a series of drawings in 2014, was my return, once again to painting, after four years of ceramics work.  

This series, "Heart of the Matter," began in 2014, as my return, once again to painting, after four years of ceramics work. Revisiting themes and images from the earlier biomorphic work, the ribcage and double fetus butterfly are central to this series. As in the series of drawings that preceded this painting, I have embedded text from forty years of dream journaling.

This series, "Heart of the Matter", began in 2014, with 50 drawings, which was my return, once again to painting, after four years of focusing again on ceramics sculpture. Revisiting themes from earlier biomorphic work, just as I did in the new sculptural series, here are ribcages and translucent fortunes with a heart added as the central images.

This painting was an overlap of the Roses Series of 2007-08 with the abstracted bones of the Wailing Pelvis Series. So we have a glowing pelvis, two scapulae, and abstracted ribs all floating in the healing realm of Our Lady of the Roses.

A biomorphic, abstract, transparent figure reveals her inner workings. Her winglike arm is wrapping around her.

This piece was a culmination of my Ribcage Butterfly series, which responded to considerable changes in our natural environment and our personal lives. Physically it presents layers of our existence. Symbolically, the bones represent what is essential and what remains behind. The pelvis represents creativity, reproduction, fertility, Mother Earth.

The wailing pelvis with attached ribcage expands further in this piece with the ribs floating out to enclose the whole composition, including a muscled torso, all very expressively painted.  It was first called Torso with Ribcage, but felt so powerful it needed a deeper title, thus:  "Body and Soul."

Playful dance of my biomorphic figures, humorous, colorful, expressive, organic. Also an example of the different treatment of a subject or image when done in water color on paper as opposed to most of my paintings done with oil on canvas.

This diptych is a biomorphic symphony! It followed "Double Fetus Butterfly" with the backbone of that piece now expanded into a whole ribcage and the wailing pelvis divided, encircling the double fetus butterfly. An example in my work of the personal shifting into the universal is the Wailing Pelvis and Double Fetus Butterfly images, which came to me when I was painting my sorrow, as my grown sons were leaving home. However, as I painted, it became something much deeper, a wailing Mother Earth grieving for the loss of her children and the destruction of her environment. This ‘double fetus butterfly’ image that appears in much of my work, may have been a premonition of the vanishing butterflies.

Using the body as metaphor to address the human psyche, my work is rich in content with strong archetypal and biomorphic images. Although my initiating impetus is often rooted in the personal, the completed works speak to the universal, reflecting larger concerns with the soul of humanity and our severely impacted natural environment. An example in my work of the personal shifting into the universal is the Wailing Pelvis image (1995-97) which came to me when I was painting my sorrow, as my grown sons were leaving home. However, as I painted, it became something much deeper, a wailing Mother Earth grieving for the loss of her children and the destruction of her environment. The wailing pelvis image represents fertility, Mother Nature and her horror at the abuse and neglect of earth and the environment.

The Wailing Pelvis Series expresses deep longing and horror, representing the Great Earth Mother, furious at the abuse of her environment. An example in my work of the personal shifting into the universal is the Wailing Pelvis image (1995-97) which came to me when I was painting my sorrow, as my grown sons were leaving home. However, as I painted, it became something much deeper, a wailing Mother Earth grieving for the loss of her children and the destruction of her environment. The wailing pelvis image represents fertility, Mother Nature and her horror at the abuse and neglect of earth and the environment.