Mary Hanrahan
“Heart Home”
Statement
I loved this project instantly when I read the concept of ‘home’ and the constraints of using a 7 x 7 inch box to express that theme.The subject of home is one I have been interested in all my life — being a dual citizen with one foot in the States, and the other in Ireland. With the restrictions of the pandemic, I had to un-plan a trip to Ireland this past May. It was this systematic canceling of all the trip’s reservations which was hard for me. I learned to allow myself to ‘let go’ of plans one at a time since I am a huge planner. My world both shrank and expanded in many ways, since I was able to appreciate the tiny things in my life, and as they say in Ireland, “to get my eye in closer” to details and really see, experience and appreciate things. The 7 x 7 box encapsulated my process of dealing with getting ‘tiny’ again and relying on my imagination to help me travel to those memories, those poems, those visuals that sustained me through these last months of uncertainty and isolation.
Materials: Balsa wood, found ephemera, acrylic paint, type transfer
NFS
Artist Bio
Mary Hanrahan has over twenty years’ experience in design with a strong love of organization and project management in both professional and higher educational environments. Her BFA from the University of New Mexico is in printmaking and photography. She studied at Tamarind Institute of Lithography as a technical assistant after graduation in 1986. She currently lives and works in Taos, New Mexico with her partner, but travels to Ireland often for creative inspiration — her heart home. She also returns each April and October to Vermont College of Fine Arts to assist graduate students with their exhibition installations during the 10-day graphic design residencies. She received her MFA in Design from VCFA in 2013.
LEAP 