Featured Artist Maura Freeman

Maura Freeman creates found object sculpture that honors sacred spaces and the ability of nature to heal. Find more of the artist’s insightful work by visiting her website.

 

 

I am a self-taught Seattle-based photographer, videographer and sculptor. I have been scrutinizing the world through the lens of a camera for as long as I can remember.

 

 

Art has been a constant companion of mine since I was a child, even though it was not always in the forefront. A project I did in graduate school for my master’s degree in psychology brought the joy of processing, seeing in an alternative way, and exquisitely sinking into the joy of my right brain.

 

 

My art, I’ve been told, is alchemy and represents a unique style.

 

 

Years ago, I began collecting found objects. Great care is given to the preparing, coloring and preserving of the items I find. These objects are transformed by imagination into unique sculptures and photographed. My work began as one-inch tall sculptures and has progressed to twenty-four inches tall and wide.

 

 

There are many roots to my art.

 

 

One focus arises from honoring mother nature and the sacred spaces and mysteries she provides all of us.

 

 

Another comes from the word “solastalgia,” which is a combination of Latin and Greek. The meaning is comfort and pain: “the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault…a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home.”

 

 

The assault on nature is another driver of my art. Other inspirations come from situations, upheavals and traumas in life that have called me to step into nature. I believe mother nature provides us with the potential to reshape, heal and slow down.

 

 

My goal is that the viewer will use their “deep imagination,” no matter where they are standing in the moment, to be in nature. To see or hear a bird in a way one never has. To imagine the nobility in the next tree branch or fallen leaf. It is from the place of deep imagination I find creativity, joy and mischievousness.

 

 

I hope you hear my voice, see the deeply etched mythology that arises from my black Irish roots, and the creative transformation in my work.

 

Artist Maura Freeman invites you to follow her on Instagram.

 

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