Lynne Conrad Marvet
Abstract art, photography, performance
Bio
Lynne Conrad Marvet is a Seattle based visual and performing artist. Her visual art includes abstract mixed media collage that often incorporates a variety of textural materials that add physical depth to her art. She also creates whimsical 3-D art, installations, and assemblage sculpture. In 2023 Lynne was accepted as a member of Women Painters of Washington and CORE Gallery in Pioneer Square. Two mixed media artworks were included in the CORE Gallery Annual Member Show in January 2024. From January 31 to February 24, 2024, her solo show, Gobsmacked! includes digital photography and new mixed media art.
Her work has been shown in two exhibits in 2023 at the Women Painters of Washington Gallery in Seattle. Her art has also been shown in exhibits organized by CoCA in 2020, 2022 and 2023, the National Collage Society 39th Annual Juried Exhibit in 2023, Small Format Exhibit 2023 (Award winner), 2022 Small Works and their 37th Annual Juried Exhibit in 2021 (receiving a Merit Award). As an active member of the Northwest Collage Society, Lynne’s art has been accepted in juried shows in Edmonds in 2021 and Mukilteo in 2022 and at Fogue Gallery in Georgetown in 2023. Also, in 2023 she had two artworks accepted in the Edmonds Arts Festival. In 2021 her collages and photographs were shown online for exhibits with Art Room Gallery Online, Envision Art, and Grey Cube Gallery.
Artist Statement
Making art energizes me and gives me joy. In both my visual and performing art, I explore states of mind and the human experience. My visual art is mostly collage inspired by abstract expressionism and features landscapes, texture, unusual juxtapositions, architecture, maps, and nature. In 2020, I began exploring making floor to ceiling 3D multi-media collage installations and smaller scale 3D imaginary landscapes.
Process
My preferred medium for visual art is mixed media collage. My work focuses on textures and patterns and is also contemplative. I work intuitively and respond to both current and older images torn from magazines, posters, cards and saved over many years. In 2018, I began incorporating torn bits of my abstract photography from many years ago into some of my collages. I also enjoy adding recycled materials, found objects, string, wire, metal, beads, stones, shells, etc. In most work, I also use acrylic, markers, pencils and oil pastels.
My mixed media art and digital photographs are explorations of inner and outer experiences. I have been a member of CoCA (Center on Contemporary Art) since 2020 in Seattle and one of her collages was in the "Vision 2020" Member Show. In 2019 she was Artist-in-Residence at Nalanda West, a center of contemplative learning. There she mounted a retrospective of her visual art, performed, copied the Heart Sutra, and created a temporary installation, “Dream-like Reflections” in a section of the meditation hall.
For my performing art, I usually start with an idea sometimes informed by props or personal experiences and play for a while until a story emerges. I trust my instincts and have learned how to "humor my human" from my clown guru, Moshe Cohen (aka Dr. YooWho) who also taught me "lightfulness." Moshe helped me find my signature clown character, MeeMee HeeHee in 2003. Study with other comedic actors has given me additional tools for my performance kit. My clowning work is sometimes interactive with toys and props depending on the environment and audience. I love performing for kids and adults of all ages. I have done volunteer "clown therapy" at Bailey Boushay House and Bayridge Retirement Center in Seattle.
I have had the good fortune to work separately with two talented actors, Hewitt Brooks and Katiana Rangel to create performances based on the life of Milarepa, a Tibetan Buddhist yogi and folk hero who composed spontaneous realization songs resulting from many years of meditating in mountain retreats. The creativity of Brooks and Rangel has inspired me greatly. In 2019, Rangel and I also created a performance from the tender and elegant children's book, Duck, Death and the Tulip by German author and illustrator Wolf Erlbruch. Most of my performances are offered at Nalanda West, a contemplative resource center in Seattle, Washington that I helped to establish in 2004.