Page 24 - North Haven Magazine Issue 22 Winter 2022

MARY ELIZABETH PETERSON
SHIFTING TIDES:

ART THAT SPEAKS TO EVER-CHANGING TIMES

MARCH 4-28, 2022 | OPENING RECEPTION: SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 4-6 PM

The Friends of the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library are pleased working through difficult things. Sometimes my works are associated
to present SHIFTING TIDES: ART THAT SPEAKS TO EVER-CHANGING with nostalgia, or death and renewal. Taking something that is intangible
TIMES, an exhibition featuring recent paintings by New Haven artist onto a canvas with paint and drawing materials solidifies time and
Mary Elizabeth Marvin Peterson. encapsulates that experience.”

SHIFTING TIDES unveils a series of mixed media paintings created by Mary Elizabeth Marvin Peterson was born in Hartford in 1965. She has
the artist over the last two years during the pandemic. While the works lived in Connecticut on and off for the last 30 years. A 12th generation
embrace the artist’s expressive joy for her medium, they also reveal the descendent of a founder of Hartford and Norwalk, she happily returned
reclusive nature of maintaining a studio practice amidst the worlds' shifting “home” in 2019. She knows the state “like the back of her hand” and
tides and drastic societal changes. Peterson’s signature paint-pushing is passionate about coastal, marine, and historic preservation. A
technique, in which she applies thick deposits and watery wisps of paint, multidisciplinary artist, her paintings celebrate process, spontaneity,
demonstrates the artist’s ongoing dedication to chance and spontaneity. femininity, and various abstract art movements. Peterson also maintains
The saturated hues, serendipitous paint movement, and mark-making an impressive art licensing practice, including collaborations with Pottery
create uniquely immersive spaces that the viewer can almost physically Barn and Williams Sonoma Home. In 2021 she launched her own brand
enter. The artist’s works have been described as “dynamic, hypnotic, and of exclusive print reproductions, Abstract Fabulous®. She received her
meditative.” B.A. in Journalism and Art History from The University of Connecticut and
an A.F.A. from The Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, DC.
“At the very core of my paintings are life experiences. Emotions are She is a member of the Silvermine Art Guild and maintains a studio at
put forward in flexible forms, and showcased as gaping cliffs, thick Erector Square in New Haven. The artist will be revealing a new series
brambles, seaweed or large expanses of sea and sky. For me, there of paintings in early Fall. She lives and works between New Haven and
is a profound link between emotion and landscape. Our country is so the CT shoreline.
diverse, and it can be shaped and expressed in numerous unique ways.
I find it mirrors the human spirit. We all feel our senses heightened when The Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library is located at 146 Thimble
we are confronted by novel and breathtaking things in our natural world. Islands Road, Branford. For more information, call Mary Elizabeth
Taking my life experiences and molding them into my own landscape Marvin Peterson at 203-209-7614 or visit www.maryelizabethpeterson.
or taking an extremely close view of rocks or seedpods is my way of com

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