Marion Wesson
Born in 1971, I am a fifth-generation Californian, raised in Los Angeles, and I’ve been painting lines on and off for 30 years. After graduating from RISD in 1993, I moved back to Los Angeles, where I am a solo parent to my two children. I’ve had solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout California, including Cruz L.A. Gallery in Venice, where I was represented in the late 1990s. During this period, I was awarded the James D. Phelan Art Award in Printmaking and exhibited at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California. Other solo exhibitions were held at The Irvine Fine Arts Center and The Loft at Boritzer/Grey/Hamano Gallery in Santa Monica. A two-year residency in Valencia, Spain, culminated in a solo exhibition and a group show in Madrid. My work is included in many private and corporate collections, including Twitter and The Mission Pacific Hotel, where a large multi-panel painting is featured in a rooftop pavilion. While navigating a three-year divorce, I explored themes of domestic abuse in a solo exhibition at Galleri Urbane in 2017. My work was featured in issue #157 of New American Paintings, and in 2022, I was an artist in residence at The Stay Home Gallery in Tennessee.
In my practice as a painter, I sought to avoid any revelatory eureka moments until I bent the line. The black-and-white reality of pattern-making has given way to the full-color life of events that do not remain invariant. Even in adhering to right angles, specified transformations never dictate the outcome. Instead, the principles of geometric properties have no vision of the resulting composition. I break the rules of perfection and mathematics, seeking the moment before purity was tainted and hopefulness was blunted.
https://www.marionwesson.com/
What is your first memory creating?
I have been making and creating art for as long as I can remember. There is no memory of myself not making things. I was always busy with painting, drawing, crafts, sculpture, sewing, and miniatures. But I suppose my first memory of creating is painting in my grandmother’s art studio as a very young child. I’m sitting sprawled on the floor with a giant piece of paper that my grandmother had given me along with a brush from her personal tools. This memory is embedded as a core example of her encouragement of me as an artist, not only because she gave a small child real tools to paint with, but also because she painted a picture of me sitting on that floor. This portrait hangs in my home today and is a reminder that art is in my blood. I made art for myself, as gifts for others, and because I was driven to be a maker.
What is your relationship to your medium? What draws you to it?
When I was a student in the painting department at RISD three decades ago, my work wasn’t very good or realized in any mature sense. While this is to be expected as a student, I struggled to figure out what my voice would be and what genre I could express my talents in. The one aspect I always excelled at (which was singularly lauded by the professors) was my affinity for color. Creating color, mixing, combining, and juxtaposing colors was always recognized, even if the compositions were not quite realized. Acrylic paint lends itself to my gifts as a colorist. I spend many hours mixing and creating colors and palettes that I can keep and store, then add to or change. I’m drawn to the endless possibilities of colors that I can customize and render. In the past few years, I started painting on linen and leaving some of the raw material exposed. I love the look of the acrylic paint with the negative space of the linen defining the background. I’m drawn to the warmth and versatility of both mediums.
What is the main thing you hope your audience takes away from your art?
My work is about color and the relationship of one juxtaposed to another. I hope to elicit a visceral reaction from my audience and create an emotional connection to the work. It should make a person feel—whether to love, smile, feel inspired, laugh, or cry. The specific reaction is not important; if my work enriches the viewer in any way, I feel I have realized my intent. I have made political work in the past as reactions to events in my life, but I’m now refocusing my attention on the purity and perhaps the simplicity of using color as a means to move the audience emotionally.
Tell us about a challenge you overcame last year.
I don’t know if there is a specific event that I overcame last year because every day as a solo parent presents a myriad of challenges. These are things that are not so much "overcome" as "gotten through." I would say I survived the completion of the ninth grade and half of tenth while caring for a chronically ill child. My own surgeries for cancer were successful but draining, adding to everything that every mom does and goes through. I don’t see these things as challenges so much as what I suspect all single moms are doing everywhere. We have too much on our plates yet are so grateful for our loving kids and our health. Every day I get to go to my studio and paint makes me happy. Every challenge I figure out how to get through makes me happy. We are, all of us, just doing our best.
What is your main goal or resolution this year in terms of your art practice?
Continuing my practice, I hope to make some really great paintings this year and exhibit the series. Having worked with many dealers and galleries throughout my career, I’ve experienced a lot of highs and lows. So, my main goal this year is to re-establish a relationship with a person or entity who will truly champion my work and support my vision moving forward as an artist. I’ve also started making miniature art and stop-motion animation, and hopefully, I’ll have the opportunity to collaborate on projects with others in this genre. I’m striving to set an example for my kids by showing that they can be proud of me for persevering and inspire them to work hard toward their own creative goals. And after everything we have been through, I want to show them I am a thriving artist and a role model for success.
