Portrait of Marla McLean
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Marla McLean

About the Artist

Passageways Artist Studios, Co-op Studio Member, Riverdale, MD Atelierista, School-Within-School, DCPS, Washington, DC Adjunct Professor, Corcoran College of Art & Design Masters Degree in Studio Art, NYU Venice/NYC Bachelors Degree in Social Art & Education, Goddard College, Plainfield, VT Associates Degree in Photography/Muli-Media, Art Institute of Pittsburgh, PAPassageways Artist Studios, Co-op Studio Member, Riverdale, MD Atelierista, School-Within-School, DCPS, Washington, DC Adjunct Professor, Corcoran College of Art & Design Masters Degree in Studio Art, NYU Venice/NYC Bachelors Degree in Social Art & Education, Goddard College, Plainfield, VT Associates Degree in Photography/Muli-Media, Art Institute of Pittsburgh, PA

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Artist's Statement

The idea of Syncretism permeates my current work. I am fascinated and attracted to mysticism, ritual, and superstition. My studio is located above The Word of God Church, in a strip mall. Every Sunday, a full band plays. Base thumping and soulful gospel music and praise comes through the ventilation system. My travels in Italy, Peru and Mexico filled me with imagery of altars, devotion, and the sacred. Indigenous markets offered potions, fortunes, prayers, and sometimes the bizarre. My maternal ancestry includes Eastern European superstitions and stories, including dreams, visiting deceased relatives and a coffee ground reader who foretold the future. I tackle imagery through metaphor and material. My form encompasses sculpture, installation, assemblage, photography, craft and mixed media. In each piece, the process and materials are married to the conceptualization.The idea of Syncretism permeates my current work. I am fascinated and attracted to mysticism, ritual, and superstition. My studio is located above The Word of God Church, in a strip mall. Every Sunday, a full band plays. Base thumping and soulful gospel music and praise comes through the ventilation system. My travels in Italy, Peru and Mexico filled me with imagery of altars, devotion, and the sacred. Indigenous markets offered potions, fortunes, prayers, and sometimes the bizarre. My maternal ancestry includes Eastern European superstitions and stories, including dreams, visiting deceased relatives and a coffee ground reader who foretold the future. I tackle imagery through metaphor and material. My form encompasses sculpture, installation, assemblage, photography, craft and mixed media. In each piece, the process and materials are married to the conceptualization.

Featured Work

Photos

Vigils I received a box of used vigil candles. The first thing that entered my head was "Too many fu#ing vigils." Say their names. People routinely drop me off their old "stuff." Usually broken tiles, containers, or tins. One day, a woman walked up to me, and said, "I have something for you. I figured you were the one person who would know what to do with these. It was a box of used vigil candles." The first thing that entered my mind was "Too many fu#ing vigils." That box sat in my studio, until the summer when back to back Alston Sterling and Philando Castille were murdered. I furiously began creating a mandala, an action, something to respond to the pain. Using healing and protection objects and symbolism, milagros, and the used vigil candles, I created Too Many F*#king Vigils. Say their names.
Please turn these Buddhist inspired prayer wheels to focus or meditate on compassion and healing. Turning the wheels clockwise creates energy by which to eliminate destructive energy. The four little girls painted on the wheels are Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carol Denise McNair who perished in racist terrorist bombing of The 16th Street Birmingham Church in 1963. While working on this piece, another act of racist terrorism occurred, the Charleston Church Shooting in 2015. In response, I added the names of the eleven victims. There is no more room to add the ever expanding roster of names and faces taken from this earth through violence rooted in racism. Please turn the wheel to counter the political spoken and unspoken effects of hatred and racism. The mantra, Om Mani Padme Om, (Lotus Mantra) is traditionally repeated. Just as a lotus grows forth and pushes out from the mud, may I emerge out of the current culture of despair and violence. May I rise into beauty and compassion. May I act on this. Rise up.