Nature and how it’s defined is integral to Marney Fuller’s art. Its many facets are represented within her body of work. All of Marney’s art, references the fleeting environment. She paints with oil and sculpts with metal. Marney has lived in Brooklyn Since 1983. She was born in Southern CA and moved to Seattle when she was 9 years old. Watching farmland and the surrounding woods bulldozed for tract housing, had an impact on her outlook as a child. Creeks were paved and the frogs were gone. Marney received her MFA from Pratt Institute. She’s lives in Park Slope and has had a studio in DUMBO, Brooklyn for 30 years. Four of Marney’s public metal art sculptures (each approx.10×10 ft) are installed on the side of PS 107 near Prospect Park at 8th Avenue and 14th Street. A large Bumblebee, Spider, Caterpillar and Butterfly grace the wall of the school building. A large Dragonfly metal sculpture (approx 10 x 12 ft) hangs from the 1st floor ceiling of the Morris Campus High School in the Bronx. Marney also did a large mosaic (200 ft x 3.5 ft) on a retainer wall outside of the campus on Boston Road, Her Dandelion sculptures have been installed at the Base of the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO as well as exhibited at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Marney is also an art educator. In 2007, she started an art school for teens in her studio called, Art Workshop Experience (AWE). In 2021, she received a National Gold Medal Art Educator Award from Scholastic Art & Writing Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. Marney says, it’s fulfilling to provide an inclusive environment for young artists to make art. In past years, she’s been a teaching artist and artist-in-residence at under-served schools in NYC. Through various grants, she’s produced public art with her students, instilling a sense of purpose to them and the communities. She’s married and has a son.
Managing Nature
Nature serves me. I want just enough trees to feel rural but, not to ruin my view. I want roses crawling up my trellis, not the wild vines rooted near my fence. My yard is filled with flowers and shrubs that tell me the seasons. It’s a prepared canvas to show off my love of the land. The racoon wants in. The black bear searches for food in my trash. The deer roam freely and eat the plants I nurtured and coddled. The tract houses replaced the farm. The farm replaced the woods. The frogs no longer croak. The creek no longer exists. My relationship with nature is from the window. What is nature and how do I define it? Encroachment.
Our relationship with nature.
STATEMENT
My art heralds the pollinators and givers of life with the undercurrent of fleeting and diminishing habitats. I celebrate the familiar; the creatures and plants that surround us everyday. They’re the bellwethers. My iconography is of changing boundaries and the impermanence of the environment. Movement, light and time are characteristic of all of my art. My paintings are emotive landscapes about our relationship with nature. The surfaces are layered. Strokes, drips, sprays and plops build the body. Colors next to one another optically describe light and depth that transform gestured marks into representation, becoming timelines of process and progression. My sculptures are emblems of nature’s small giants. They resemble large physical drawings that twist and scribble. They ornately adorn their environments like a piece of jewelry. Most of my sculptures are made from an assemblage of noble metals; rods, tubing, sheets and wire. Like my paintings, they’re layered. I weave, build, sew and meld metals together to create forms. My labor of love in all my art is to elevate our awareness of nature. With climate change affecting us everyday, we need to serve as guardians to care and preserve our local habitats and their inhabitants.
[/wpcol_3fifth]
