Mary Hatch

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Review/Article

Review/Article:

SALOME; A LITERARY DANCE MAGAZINE, 1986

Portfolio: Paintings by Mary Hatch, by Effie Mihopoulos

"What I am chiefly concerned with in my paintings lies behind surface reality." Max Beckman, 1938.

My paintings aren't meant to be viewed as one looks at the natural world where there is (hopefully) a kind of logic to the unfolding of events. Rather they are symbolic representations--puzzles- often obscure even to me except on a visual level. Questions rather than answers.

Therefore, an explanation for the appearance of dancers in my work is somewhat difficult. They arrived unbidden and simply became a part of the everyday activities of the figures that inhabit my paintings. It was never a conscious decision to incorporate dance into my work, but rather a result of my natural tendency to express myself through the use of the human form.

Dancers and figurative artists, I believe, share certain sensibilities. They both have a heightened awareness of the human body and its ability to communicate endless levels of meaning through the slightest gesture or movement.

Dance expresses the active state of the human mind, which exists even in repose. It implies giving form to emotions with discipline and elegance whether awkward or graceful. It in fact becomes a metaphor for life. In a way representing human beings, as they would wish to conduct their lives and certainly paralleling my goals as an artist..