Mary Cuddihee Skrill

 Artist Statement
I was born in an area just outside of St. Louis, Missouri. Although the physical environment of my upbringing was suburban, I was exposed early on to the growing city of St. Louis and the iconic Gateway Arch that always acted as a physical touchstone standing in marked contrast to slightly worn St. Louis city center. My father is an architect in the modernist tradition and my mom was a singer and performer. They supported my talents and encouraged me to express myself though the arts.


Some of my earliest memories as a young child was drawing and painting before the sun came up. My family left St. Louis during my early youth, relocating to different regions of the country, before settling in Greenville, SC. My continued passion for art was advanced by formal training in Greenville at its principal art institutions. These studies eventually led me to SUNY Purchase in Purchase, NY, where I received my BFA in Painting and Drawing in 1985. After Purchase, I stayed in New York, settling in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Similar to the place of my birth, I am attracted to urban geometries of Brooklyn’s built environment and waterways which I document photographically as I wander the physical landscape of my slightly worn adopted home. Nature has also always been important to me as I apply this passion to my small mostly concrete Brooklyn garden.  I love the interplay between natural forms intermingling with the decay of built places as nature, the past and present in our dynamic community intertwines and competes for primacy.  
 
I am often stopped short by the play of light, color, shape and shadow upon both old and new surfaces, particularly facades, as visual threads are interwoven, including the dynamic presence of my neighbors who customarily mark neglected surfaces with graffiti.
Using my own photographs, I translate the found geometries, patterns and colors into paintings where I often add physical relief, adding dynamic arrangements of supports that mirror the constructed and often ad hoc nature of the arrangements I encounter on the less travelled streets of Brooklyn.