Freeway Exit Seattle
“The only way to examine a departed culture is through its legacy of artifacts. Like the Egyptian pyramids and the Pantheon of Rome we shall be known as The Great Road Builders. Marsha Glazière reworks these monumental formations into intimate landscapes. Coaxing the essence of sun-dappled glen from visually neglected industrial spaces. The resulting mosaic of color, re-purposed imagery, and textured physical objects mimic the frenetic vibration of our contemporary culture.” —Oliver Doriss / Director FULCRUM http://www.fulcrumtacoma.com
“These paintings are raw, gritty and bombastic, with collage elements integrated into the painting as well as any I’ve ever seen. She uses wire mesh, wood, metal, paper, corrugated cardboard and other materials to create textures and hints of imagery that peek out here and there like remnants of old billboards showing through where more recent ones have been ripped open. Despite dense and complex imagery and materials her compositions are simple with, in most paintings, no more than two or three major forms delineated by sections of road or a scrim of buildings. These larger forms set up strong directional sweeps of motion that are highly dramatic.
This is an excellent show of powerful paintings by an artist I’d love to see much more of.”
Tacoma Narrows Bridge
—Alec Clayton—Visual Arts Columnist Weekly VOLCANO Tacoma / Olympia WA
” These paintings are so gorgeous… makes concrete come alive in the underbellies of the freeway and bridge systems. Amazing what you see and reveal to us all.” —Clare Whelan / CEO http://www.doorsmiami.com/
Schuster Parkway Tacoma WA
In 1996 I drove across country with a good friend to Jacksonville, Florida. My intention was to stay three months to finally have a ‘painting sabbatical.’ That turned out to be a totally unrealistic expectation since it took me almost that long to set up a studio! Three months turned into six, and by that time I was captivated by the sultry southern geography all around me—from the St. Johns river (which runs through and also surrounds the city of Jacksonville)—to the savannahs and white sand islands northeast of the city heading toward Georgia.
Experiencing the wonder of Big Talbot Island along that coastline transformed my work, synthesizing years of organic figurative imagery and architectural abstraction with the inspiration of nature. Six months turned into an eight year odyssey. I loved painting in my studio on the river. I also taught art at the University of North Florida during that time, but was able to devote most of my energy and time to visually interpreting the natural landscape I had fallen in love with.
I returned ‘home’ to the Northwest in 2004 and found myself inspired by urban landscape more and more— with Seattle and Tacoma’s diversity of textures, shapes and colors—especially the drama of omnipresent freeway roads, ramps and bridges spanning Puget Sound.
My current exhibit @ FULCRUM in Tacoma (through April 12) is titled “ROADSIDE,” and that is what the paintings are all about—being on the road. My inspiration and visual perspective were entirely derived while ON the road driving.
“Freeway Exit” is the view inside the Mercer Street off-ramp exit which I have taken hundreds of times heading north on Interstate-5 .
Sad to say, I have unintentionally recorded for posterity—the “View From The Viaduct.” It won’t be long before roadway SR 99 is entirely demolished and replaced with a new tunnel in Seattle. What grabbed my southbound attention was how Mt. Rainier straddled the skyscape between Seattle’s two sports stadiums.
And, I had no idea that the “Nalley Viaduct” series of serpentine ramps in Tacoma would be demolished when I decided to paint them. An electrician who was working in my studio saw the painting on my easel and remarked that I was making ‘history.’ When I asked him why—he told me that the section of ramps which sooo fascinated me—was slated to be torn down and replaced with a straighter and less ‘artistic’ looking Sprague exit.
“Schuster Parkway“— featured in Tacoma’s Weekly Volcano newspaper—is an eclectic mix of roadways, pillars and underpasses with roadside views of Commencement Bay. Of course, I had to juxtapose ‘imagined’ geographical references as well.
I consider my paintings to be mosaics both in thought and in process. This approach provides me with greater artistic license to mix media as well as metaphor. The built environment holds magic for me.