How an artist turned her personal struggles into a series
Margaret Murphy's art extends past the canvas. While most artists work is displayed on plain white walls, her paintings are presented on a pink wall in several different galleries.
She said her paintings, which feature different figurines, look good on the walls because "not all art has to be on plain white walls."
Murphy was the 2016 Barstow Artist-in-Residence for the Department of Art and design. She hosted an artist talk in Wightman Hall on Sept. 13.
“I like the idea of buying materials that are available to anyone," Murphy said.
Murphy grew up in small Baltimore town where figurines were popular. Eventually, Murphy decided to buy some herself to see what would happen.
Little did she know this would be the beginning of her career as an artist. She wasn't aware the figures weren't common in other cities and began to paint them.
Her first series was on figurines she found at dollar stores. Murphy would photograph several angles of the figurines before starting her paintings.
After taking the pictures, she would sketch the pictures before painting them. Most of her artwork is done with watercolor and acrylic paint.
In the beginning of her career, Murphy would use only solid colors for the background of her paintings. One day she decided to buy a table cloth and use it as the theme of the background of her painting. She noticed how well the figure and background blended with each other and decided to continue using decorative backgrounds.
Eventually she moved on from painting the figurines. Her next series began after a trip to Amsterdam for her birthday. While there, she decided to look in a souvenir store while she was in Amsterdam. Some figurines featured nudity she said weren't commonly featured in the U.S and the concept interested her.
She ended up buying the figurine for her new series “The Good Girl/Bad Girl."
Murphy was diagnosed with breast cancer. After the diagnosis, she began painting broken figurines as a way to project her experience in her art. Murphy would buy a new figurine and break it into multiple pieces. In some of the paintings there were arms broken off to the side of the figurines, scattered on the floor.
Her next series is another form of projecting her life experience -- this time regarding the sense of being overwhelmed with current news.
"Wherever you are, you are getting bombarded with current news information," she said.
Once the news of the Boston Bombing broke out Margaret had an idea of a new painting. Murphy and her daughter, who is interesting in fashion, decided to do a project together representing the bombing. Her daughter designed the dress while Murphy designed the pattern — which was a painting of the house the bomber hid in.
Murphy's currently series is images of different dresses after going on a residency with her daughter, who is interested in fashion. They decided to do a project together where Murphy painted the pattern and her daughter designed the dress.
Her current studio is the Barstow Studio where she continues her series on making paintings of different dresses.
