Statement

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Since July, 2016, I have been making a series of works using thousands of tiny beads affixed to paper with glue to create images which call to mind large landforms and celestial phenomena, but which are actually inspired mostly by small natural objects under magnification. The creation of these pieces is a meditative process of gluing down each bead, one at a time, so that a puzzle of interlocking shapes forms the majority of the surface of the work. In other, smaller areas, the paper is allowed to show through either as sharply outlined negative space or as background to lacey arrangements of beads. I write the titles of these bead pieces as micro-poems to give a snapshot of my thoughts while making them and to disrupt the banality of viewing them as merely "pretty."

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Bio

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Alison Marra is an emerging painter and mixed media artist living in Yonkers and working in Dobbs Ferry. Her work has been exhibited recently at the Yonkers Riverfront Gallery and Upstream Gallery in Hastings, and is part of a forthcoming show through the Hastings Village Arts Commission. From 2007-2011, she completed murals in the Rivertowns at Dance & Theater Arts Studios, Purpl, and Springhurst Elementary School. She has created and taught classes to adults on how to reclaim a creative life, and since 2013 she has been artist in residence at Hillside Elementary School, where she guides students through art projects to supplement their social studies curriculum.