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Etched in Light : Spotlight on Marty Maehr
by Aaron Deland
Marty in his Studio
Very spiritual at his innermost roots, American artist
Marty Maehr seeks to represent the ineffable, speaking
through the most essential visual elements to allow his
audience to feel and meditate. Working with primarily oil
on canvas, Maehr employs a thick impasto application of
paint, crafting a rich symbolic schema in color and form
while often avoiding representation altogether.
In technicolor boldness and clarity, we are transported to
where sunlight or stars beam down upon a world teeming
with life, an Edenic place of innocence and wonder. Maehr
possesses a deep-seated kinship with nature. The energies
of plants and animals, along with the elemental forces of
light, water and wind, appear to reach out towards a horizon
through Maehr’s rich strokes of paint. One may discover
vistas of lush valleys and rolling hills flowing under lunar
bodies and fiery sunsets. These paintings are not just pretty
playthings, but spiritual endeavors. Maehr is deeply involved
with philosophy, naming Emerson, Lao Tzu, Nietzche and
Plato as influential to his thinking in addition to Biblical and
ancient Chinese beliefs. These thinkers stimulate Maehr’s
creative mind and through painting he is able to let his
thoughts become a reality, pouring out from mind to matter.
“I have the utmost respect for the creative process and how
“The color wheel, to me, mirrors
the human soul.”
The Conversion on the Way to Damascus After Caravaggio
Oil on Canvas 36” x 48”
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