Martha Gatewood

About the Artist

Painter and Poet, Martha Gatewood moved to Baltimore to attend art school and fell in love with the local customs and vernacular. Her work has been featured in Preservation Online, Smile, Hon, You're in Baltimore!, the Shattered Wig Review and numerous area galleries. The artist maintains an internet persona called Molly Goatwax.

Artist's Statement

Creating small, seemingly inexplicable mysteries is something I need to do. When you collect your thoughts, where do you put them? Some fleeting ideas are so fragile they need to be fostered into viability. How do you illustrate the memory of an inarticulate wish? I found myself trying over and over to capture the vague yearning that old buildings, empty spaces and imaginary pasts made me feel. With that intention I found another challenge. Combining shreds of poetry with painting and attaching latches, hasps, ceiling buttons and spring doorstops has always been very tricky territory. At least, it has been for me. My visual vocabulary finds its best expression with handmade papers, hardware, and gel transfers of buildings and landscapes from manipulated photographs. With these works I also create inner spaces, containers which collectively suggest a narrative about secret histories, urban erosion, vague regrets and jokes no one understands.