Mary Richardson
My body of work combines themes of womanhood, male validation, childhood nostalgia, and my struggles with an eating disorder. With drawing as my medium, I want this series of work to represent the struggles I have dealt with in my adolescent and early adulthood years.
My time in high school and college were very formative years for me and, as I approach graduation, I have done a great deal of reflection on my personal growth. In an attempt to represent this, I primarily use colored pencils, pen, and letter stamps. One of my pieces, Untitled, illustrates how I struggle with “filling others’ cups” before filling my own. The emptiness and limited palette of the piece is meant to suggest a glass of water being emptied. Another piece, Facetime Unavailable, speaks to my history with male validation issues. The image depicts my tearful face staring at the viewer, seemingly discouraged that my call was not answered by whoever I was calling.
This body of work draws from this stage of my life as I reach the conclusion of my childhood. There is something very bittersweet about growing up, but I also think that it is a very telling and metamorphic transition.