The IndependentDo you ever take for granted where you live? It is easy sometimes to get complacent and forget how stunningly beautiful the desert is and how lucky we are to live in it. This is the theme of artist Mary Manning’s Re-Vision: Seeing a New West exhibit going up at the DiFiore Center in St. George.
By abstract painting, interpreting the deserts, mountains, rivers and lakes, Manning says she tries to get people to notice the incredible beauty of the West and the Southwest, where extreme conditions are the norm.
Mary Manning works in acrylics and watercolors and seeks the elements — air, earth, water and fire — “because I am so inspired by the natural world, have seen light play on mountainsides, its glow changing hour by hour; the glitter of snow and dew drops hanging like crystals from the plants in our beautiful desert,” she says.
“By returning to these elemental themes in my work, I always feel a great sense of energy, and try to integrate the opposites: East and West, Dark and Light, Macro and Microcosm. Using modern western materials, yet influenced by ancient techniques such as gilding and Eastern painting principles, I try to draw people to slow down, contemplate, and truly begin to see the wonders all around them,” Manning says.
Manning’s exhibit, Re-Vision: Seeing a New West, will hang at the DiFiore Center for Art and Education, 307 North Main St., from Jan. 2 through Jan. 29. An artist’s reception is set for 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 2. See her work from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at the DiFiore Center for Art and Education.
