Mary Carroll grew up on a farm in rural West Virginia. When she wasn’t helping tend to the animals, honey bees or massive garden, she spent her time making up stories about the world around her and drawing them—essentially the same thing she is doing today.
Deeply connected to the natural world, her recent drawings explore the human relationship to wildlife and the land, with one eye toward the past and the other toward what is yet to come.
The Victor, ink, graphite and acrylic on toned Stonehenge paper, 12 x 12"
“As ancient people, without technology and over-population, we valued the natural world around us as they were part of our everyday life, while today, it is more like a novelty or afterthought,” Carroll says. “Animal narratives or fables aren’t as relevant in our society anymore and I wanted to give the critters in the natural world a little bit of the meaning that time has since divided.
Homecoming, charcoal and acrylic on Arches paper mounted on ACM panel, 16 x 20"
“Because humans are a part of the natural world as well, I want the viewers to consider a more conscious connection to the animal world and narrative by looking at these works and inventing their own stories from the imagery. While I want all of the work I have done to be something that is a place where people can insert their own imagination, their origin is always from a personal place inside me. I spend as much time as I can outside, witnessing and admiring the natural world, hiking the woodlands daily, and these stories are all born out of the time I have spent there.”
Murmuration, graphite, ink and acrylic on toned Stonehenge paper, 12 x 16"
An element of peril runs through the pieces—distant lands are aflame; innocent lambs seem like easy prey; a horse rears under a sky dark with birds; coyotes scavenge an abandoned house, the sound of a growl almost audible as its level gaze challenges the viewer.
With the piece Homecoming, Carroll was thinking about what the world would look like if humankind vanished and animals took back their rightful place. “This abandoned house represents nature reclaiming the earth,” she explains. “I imagine the exterior of it to be swallowed by vines, taking it slowly to back to the ground. I see coyotes as the most resilient and adaptable animal…always finding a way to thrive inside our manmade world.”
The Messenger and the Prophecy, graphite, ink, and acrylic on toned Stonehenge paper, 12 x 12"
The Light of the World carries a dark message with a glimmer of hope. Native to the deep south, the ivory billed woodpecker is considered a critically endangered species due to habitat loss. Its last official sighting was in 1944 in Louisiana but there was an unconfirmed sighting in the early 2000s. “I wanted the woodpecker to be gathering all the light in the world and taking it down to the flames with it,” she says. “Conversely, the light also symbolizes the hope that surrounds the situation.”
Goodnight, Sleeptight, graphite and ink on toned Stonehenge paper, 14 x 11"
Even though his chest is pierced with an arrow, the bear in Victor is meant to be seen as just that. “Victorious of what is up to the viewer,” she says. “I like to think that the bear is taking back what humanity has taken from it.”
Carroll, who considers herself primarily a draftsman but is also an accomplished painter, has combined the mediums in her latest work, highlighting the animals with color. In The Messenger and the Prophecy and Murmuration,the horse and bird trail ribbons of color, like banners of warning because they have no voice.
The Light of the World, graphite, ink and acrylic on toned Stonehenge paper, 14 x 11"
Carroll will be featured in a show titled The Embered Wild at RJD Gallery which runs from October 2 through November 5.
“Animals are the great storytellers of the earth,” says gallery director Joi Jackson Perle. “Though their tales are often silent, they are understood by those who care to listen. Mary Carroll not only listens but captures these sentient beings with a delicate beauty and a deep respect for their place in the world.” —
RJD Gallery 227 N. Main Street • Romeo, MI 48065 (586) 281-3613 • www.rjdgallery.com
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