Mercy Hawkins In the Garden, 2021
Mixed media on yupo paper, textiles, fiber
10' x 10'
Presented by Marrow Gallery, Booth D09
Like a field of grass in silent sway, In the Garden, by Mercy Hawkins, invites the viewer to relax the eye so that the inner ear might open to hear what we see. This work breathes quiet rhythmic patterns unfolding in multi-colored watercolors and layered stitching as dashes keep the silent beat. As if growing up from the floor, each sculptural painting contains a unique, organic syntactical integrity, relating to the others as of a genus or familial species. A playful stillness is revealed, as one may observe in the delicate intertwining of undergrowth in a forest. Musical forms of the natural world invite the viewer to a slowing of the tempo, a gentle dance wherein the muses awaken.
Mercy Hawkins is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. Her work seeks to reveal a new language, expanding a lexicon of the possible, as it relates to the sensorium of the living body, both in and as the natural world. Working within a craft-based manipulation and assemblage of varied materials, Hawkins pursues a return to a vital visual language, imbued with a living, responsive pulse of the natural world.
Hawkins received her BA from California State University, Sacramento with a minor in History and received her MFA from University of California, Davis. She was graduate fellow in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito CA (2021/22), and is featured in New American Paintings #153, MFA Annual. She currently teaches at CSU Sacramento and UC Davis. Her work is represented by Marrow Gallery, where she will have a solo exhibition in October 2023.