To paraphrase the poet, Silvia Plath, “…The becoming self rather than the fixed self, may well be understood intuitively by the poet, in and through the creative practice, exemplifying assemblage…”
Painter Danièle M. Marin, in “Fragmentation and Simultaneity,” is a poet of paint, working in mixed media collage and diptych, abstracting color, form and line, so that her world vessel holding reality, shattered into visual shards, expresses her deep emotions as attempts to mentally rebuild to wholeness a chaotic time ravaged by illness. Due to the pandemic, her works could only be seen virtually, as the gallery was closed in an attempt to keep the contagion at bay. Seen from online, Ms Marin’s paintings are reconstruction strategies, metaphors from the cognitive process, dramatic results both simultaneously subject and object, manifesting the artist’s thought processes in acts evolving from efforts to organize life experiences cohesively.
acrylic & collage
20″ x 24″
In some ways, this exhibit is a working through of emotions for Ms. Marin, as it is an important major show after her husband’s long illness and death. She cared for him at home while he greatly suffered and because of this protracted trauma, Ms. Marin had to reconfigure her house physically and also had to integrate the situation mentally. This experience deeply changed her, and her art work is now mostly non-objective; painting pulled apart versions of her former life with contentment abruptly curtailed. The works’ collaged geometrics are now distorted as arbitrary jagged bits on a frequently divided picture plane interspersed with dark gestured dashes incorporated into strong painted passages.
One might say Ms. Marin lives the process of creating, where results honestly come from her interior emotional space, bringing to consciousness feelings found deep within. Her personal reactions are identifiable to us as universal responses and we become not only moved, but in some ways specific in our sentiments, despite the incessant turmoil hindering thoughtful reactions we may have to the work, as we experience our current chaotic human existence.
By the painting process, Ms. Marin attempts to make dissimilar thoughts whole, integrating cohesively a gamut of emotional and mental constructs. She adjoins
two separate canvases in diptychs as single compositions, the disparate parts harmonizing to form a visual oneness. As she creates, she reintegrates disjointed thoughts into healthy wholeness as a way to figuratively recover from the visceral fragmentation she felt after her husband’s death. She is making her heart whole again and it is necessary for her healing.
As Ms. Marin confronts the challenges of today, she is grounded in rigorous artistic training at the Louvre and the many years of study continue to inform her work up
to the present. For her, Cezanne showed the way; his deformation of classical perspective, shifting the viewer’s perception of the picture plane along with the mixing of line gestures and geometric abstract color entities. It helped Ms. Marin
realize the abstract expressionist paintings of this show as her fragmented collaged forms pay homage to this seminal modern master. She also acknowledges Franz
Kline’s bold crossings of lines and planes laid down in energy-filled black and white strokes, coupled with his quick calligraphic markings, as aids to conjure up the dynamic drives in her pieces. Additionally, she suggests the emotional resonances from some of her works’ lyrical passages are influenced by her appreciation of Rembrandt’s compassionate depictions of humanity in his sepia-colored drawings.
Although the artistic influencers of Ms. Marin’s work are diverse, all contribute technically and subliminally to her continuing process of art making emanating
from her innate poetic soul. Linework and brushstrokes are emotive and one of the most important aspects of the creation of her pieces is her flowing painterly method to manifest the works. Vigorous strokes give the paintings their true values and they are the results of Danièle M. Marin’s profound mining of the feelings both sad and joyful that she has experienced in her life. Her world was tragically shattered while being tossed by the vagaries of today’s existence but she triumphed over these adversities to bring forth carefully considered, accomplished pieces based on long artistic study.
Even though I could not view the paintings in person, I am grateful for the opportunity to see them through today’s internet technology. I hope her next exhibit will be physically accessible to the public after the end of this severe pandemic and I look forward to this being a reality once again, soon.
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