Martha Jackson Jarvis

Photograph courtesy of Jarvis Grant

Portfolio of Artwork 923-927

Martha Jackson Jarvis is a multimedia and mixed-genre artist who uses not only scenes and people from real life but also various found materials and over-heard narratives, discarded and found, all of which she repurposes in the making of her art. What emerges from this making are stunning sculptures, paintings, installations, collages, and other hybrid aesthetic visual forms. When I first met Martha Jackson Jarvis, I visited her at her studio on January 8, 2015, in Mount Rainier, Maryland, to conduct and record an interview, part of which I have excerpted below. Unfortunately, before I met her in her studio, I had not had the privilege of reading her artist statement, which would have helped me tremendously in my preparations for the interview. Fortunately, my visiting with her in her studio was invaluable, for it afforded me the opportunity to view more of her work—especially beyond that represented online and in published texts. And what a distinct pleasure it was to visit her at work in her vast studio, which not only contained some of her new work on paper and in-progress; it was also filled with earlier and new sculpture and a number of mixed media forms. What I have excerpted here from that January 8 interview further concretizes and illuminates, as well as extends, her artist statement, which immediately follows.

My work explores issues of conservation and our relationship to natural materials and landscapes. I draw uncommon analogies between disparate forms, objects, and materials to construct narratives of real and imagined landscapes. My memory and enchantment with nature spring from early encounters in the Southern landscape of my childhood. I grew up in rural Virginia in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. This landscape is indelibly inscribed in my mind’s eye giving consciousness to feelings, ideas, and perceptions of scale, stories, familial knowledge, and memories of a distinctive Southern place. The sticks, stones, and red clay of the Southern landscape travel with me in my work.

I am interested in ethno biology, ecosystems, and cultural identity. These concerns are translated within the context of urban and rural spaces. The energy and verve of memorable Southern environments still informs my work. I am interested in forces that bind inanimate and animate objects in symbiotic relationships that influence life and define our place on Earth. In my work, I explore the energy in materials, their emanating auras, textures, and sources of power. Encapsulated in my symbolism is the idea of a transformative creative force that I set in motion. Organic elements reference the fundamental character of the feminine as the great round that contains the universe. Elements of impermanence and enduring cycles of change and accumulation and decay are revealed in my use of stone, glass, concrete, steel, wood, rubber, and fiber. As an artist, I am interested in the compelling possibilities of public art that reflects the diversity and wealth of cultural influences apparent in contemporary life. I am interested in elements of identity and culture that survive, strengthen, and compel humanity forward. I use history as a reservoir to distill expressive and meaningful symbols that link cultures one to another. These signs and symbols made visible have the power to resonate in the hearts and minds of generations to come. I believe it important to discern underlying currents in the physical and social environment that reflect the distinctive characteristics of a community. Stories humans tell are narratives of survival, identity, power, success, and failure. They are stories of origins and creation that reach into ancestry and simultaneously extend a path and direction forward to future generations. My artistic challenge is to bring theses epic stories to the fore in a poignant and poetic way in my sculpture.

ROWELL:

Since I walked into your studio, your work space, I have been looking at your paintings, but as I continue to look around I am beginning to look at some of your sculpture. You have also created public works. Will you speak of that period...