Mary Streepy Art

About Mary Streepy

Streepy went into the arts programs at Wichita State University after high school in the state of Kansas where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and painting. Since her first art show in 2006, she has been refining her talents, but never settling down on just one medium, subject matter, or technique.  Her body of work defines a style uniquely its own.

"The ink thing was an accident. I spilled ink on a painting and frantically tried to blow it off in an attempt to save it, and I just liked what it started to do. It's spontaneous, but eventually you start to gain control over the process."

She uses this blown ink technique on just about any medium she comes across, whether it's canvas or a slab of wood. More recently, she has been focused on a more controlled, subdued application of  the ink in order to contain and emphasize the importance of shape and line.

"I'm just trying to be honest with what I value visually. It's always interesting when somebody, especially a stranger, looks at what I've created and can feel a connection to it. I'm just doing it because I have to. I love to create and I always will, so to find that connection with somebody is really inspiring."

Streepy currently resides in Austin, TX and continues to make and show her work. You may be able to spot her in the SoCo area on occasion, selling prints, stencils, and other goodies to suppport her artistic habits.

Artist Statement:
When I was younger, my imagination would take me away. It was the kind of imagination that could turn a ripped piece of wallpaper into a bunny reaching for a carrot, wood grain on a table into people dancing and faces laughing, a crack in a sidewalk or shadow on a wall into new landscapes of endless possibilities and beauty. Today, I maintain this imaginative spirit within my work. By combining an external input of materials used with the internal output of my thoughts, emotions, symbols, and images, I am able to give way to organic narratives and fluid like imagery that coincide with the natural fluidity of living life in the moment.

By using circle clusters, blown ink, wood grain, dripping paint, and organic forms while working in a spontaneous and subconscious manner, I showcase this fluidity by allowing the inner child to emerge. The inner child then contrasts with the inevitable intermingling of themes of adulthood. Following the inner child thus becomes an escape, a place of pure spontaneity and sub-consciousness that leaves behind surreal imagery of mysterious origins. Leaving the artwork open-ended allows for a hope that the viewer too can escape, connecting up with their own childhood fantasies. My work reinvents and restates a world that exists before the confines of the structured life we are taught to live take control.