From the Artist

​

In this body of work I am using materials like old photographs, my children’s used composition books, and other ephemera that clutter our home to build abstract patterns and shapes on canvas and paper. I have saved many keepsakes over the years, a habit compounded by becoming a parent and cherishing that which is made by my children. Too precious to throw away but too plentiful to keep, these materials are also a visual reminder of the habit of waste ingrained in our culture, fueled by consumerism and thoughtlessly passed on to the next generation. This work is an attempt to reconcile these tensions. When my children started grade school, our home became inundated with composition books brought home at the end of the year. Most of the books were only half filled with their precious scribbles and young thoughts, the remainder just clean, lined paper. How could I simply discard blank pages? Attempts were made to finish them out with lists or drawings. While I could put most works on paper into a drawer out of sight with the intention to revisit one day, these books held a shape that could be stacked, to watch that stack grow as my children did. I started using them to create patterns with relief. The words and drawings on the pages, subtly visible, are not only an homage to that stage of their development, but to one of mark making as a means to communicate. The shredded photograph collage pieces started with a series created from copies of a single photograph of my daughter at 18 months old. I had intended to send the photos as Christmas cards, but I missed the deadline. Instead they lived in various boxes, invariably taunting me whenever I stumbled across them, reminding me of my unmet deadline. My children aged, and I finally had the time, space, and inclination to turn the pictures into something new. I have since expanded the series to incorporate pieces of photographs of the Pacific Coast. Sorting the pieces into color groups and finding ways to reassemble them recalls the muscle memory of doing a jigsaw puzzle. It is a meditative and centering process. Originally, I set out to explore the dichotomy of finding sentimentality in objects and their role in consumerism. However, the more I delve into this mixed media work, the focus has shifted toward questioning the sentimentality, moving through the memories and the feelings brought to the surface, and creating something new to honor that place in time. .

​

Artist Biography

​

Marcia Holloway Ross is a mixed media artist working in a process based practice. She has exhibited work at Meadow Gallery, KORE Gallery, Aurora Gallery, among others in Louisville, KY, at Stay Home Gallery in Paris, TN and most recently at Chestnuts and Pearls in New Albany, IN. In 2022 she launched and curated Mothering Me, an annual group show for artists who are mothers in and around the Kentuckiana region. In its third year the exhibit was held at the Floyd County Cultural Arts Center from September 2024 to early January 2025 and included artists from all over Kentucky and Indiana. She has been awarded residencies through the Kentucky Foundation For Woman in both 2023 and 2024. Marcia earned a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY) and will begin her journey as an MFA student with the Hite Institute of Art and Design at the University of Louisville in the fall of 2025. She lives with her husband and two children in Crestwood, KY.