Artist Statement
Mary-Ann Kokoska
My art work is heavily invested in the medium and act of drawing. For me drawing is process, an inquisitive action that begins with making a “mark”. In its directness such a “creative vector” suggests a complexity of conceptual possibilities. These I construct, probe and unravel in the creative process. My approach allows a cognitive mimesis that operates mindfully and speculatively through seeing, thinking, relating and remembering. It is about how I engage with the world around me. My experiences are often found in landscape and nature.
I am currently working on a new series of drawings entitled “Ghosts”. In these works the image is built up through many layers of marks and gestures only to be eventually wiped away. What remains is just enough, a residue of the former image. However, rather than appearing as an “after image” it is persistent in asserting its own being, and resonates in presence.
The title “Ghosts” represents my interest in bodies of energy, traces left behind by the physical. It reflects my questioning of my own physical existence, what may appear as tangible and permanent is in actual fact transient; rather the non-physical aspect is more tangible and carries with it a substance far more worthy of investigating.