Page 10 - Enso Circle Catalog September 2021

About MARIAN MCKENZIE-CONE

the

Artist

Who looks outside,dreams Who looks inside, awakes ~ Carl Jung

I grew up in Waimate, a small rural township in New Zealand. My parents
owned a small farmlet.

My Father was an Apiarist and we had a huge orchard, hens, ducks, sheep etc
and clay banks under huge macrocarpa trees to carve into, trees to climb and
make huts in, ponds to go frogging in, drawing and nature was a natural fit from
very early in my life.

“Art, a handshake into possibilities “

I explore the ideas of abandonment and synchronicity. Our life journey is
an individual one that we must take alone, yet we simultaneously seem to be
About guided by unconscious happenings, that in hindsight we see as connected all

along.
the The idea of “Alone ,Together” makes sense here. My overall vision for this

work was to take decades of my life 1948-2021 and seal these into concrete
Work covered books as a pedestal on which my polystyrene,plaster bandage,
paper mache,head rests,NZ stamps and aged with sepia toned inks and gel
medium and concrete paint to experience new places peering into the next
decades, through an open arch of being born again.

Alongside this 3D work I explore a new idea to me, spirit dolls, thus
producing:

“Mum Spirit Doll” a triptych, from objects collected over many years.
The purple buttons from cushions made for our first bedroom 1968, here
representing my four children along with their nappy pins.Objects that
represent farm life, the little necklace I received for Xmas when I was about
five. A lamp to light my way, a suspender representative of holding on or
letting go, a blue button from a coat mother made for me for Sunday School.
NZ Paua, a symbol of change and transition.

The writing is a page of thoughts from a lifetime.

The collage pulled childhood and adulthood together and spoke of the
meaning of stamps on my face.
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