Artists in Inventory

 

Artist Statement

Collecting and reassembling discarded library books and cards, I think about how they have been read and transformed by time into historical remnants. Books and cards discarded from a community library imply a shared history of people reading the same books. Combining the ‘found’ phrases of the book titles to form poems, I use the cards as pages and tape or sew them into unique artist books. Images made with gouache, coffee and block prints intersect with the words to create a narrative. Re-reading history, consumer culture, and the future of reading are some of the ideas explored

Artist Biography • Mary V. Marsh

Years of working in libraries have influenced Mary V. Marsh's materials and her process. She collects and categorizes images and discarded library materials to look at reading, consuming and propaganda. Images combined with found words on library checkout cards are made into one-of-a-kind and small-edition books. A shared love of hiking and journal keeping and practicing art together, has evolved into collaborative works with husband Tony Bellaver.

Marsh was born in Portland, Oregon and has been living and making art in the Bay Area since 1982. She received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1992 where she met her husband Tony Bellaver. She has exhibited in many venues in the Bay Area with solo shows at; San Francisco Art Commission at Grove Street, San Jose Museum of Art, Berkeley Art Center, and San Francisco Public Library. Currently a member of Mercury 20 Gallery in Oakland, she makes unique and small edition artist books under Quite Contrary Press.

Artist Biography • Tony Bellaver

Oakland based artist Tony Bellaver creates mixed media sculpture and drawings inspired by his love of hiking and nature. He incorporates maps, drawings, photographs and found foliage gathered on his many hikes to create texture and meaning in his diary-like works.

While backpacking, Tony makes small journals during his treks to capture the experience of the places he’s traveled through. This exercise gives him a better understanding of himself as an element in nature rather than the focal point. The journals become the source for larger sculptures, sometimes in book form, of what is in his mind. Using materials such as wood as the framework, plus found objects and photographs he tells a layered story of his journeys.

Tony grew up in the South Bay where he was somewhat indifferent to the typical high school sports hero. Riding his bike and hiking to fishing spots with like-minded friends were his norms. After undergraduate school in San Jose, he went to the San Francisco Art Institute for graduate school to study painting and sculpture.

Kerri Hurtado, Curator, Art Source Inc.