Mary Malenoir

My work, however superficially abstract it may at first appear, is concerned with the representation of human nature - people, characters, their virtues and vices in a very theatrical sense - 'All the World's a Stage' and I am fascinated by the unchanging fundamentals of human relationships.

Each work begins by my setting up a stage, scene or ground-base upon which an incident, appearance or comment will take place. Archetypal characters or foibles of mankind perform their antics on this picture plane as they do in the definitive dramas of human character, such as the Commedia dell' Arte, Punch and Judy, pantomime, Shakespeare or the Bible.

I put myself in nearly every picture in some form or another, maybe as a puppet-master, sometimes as narrator, even as a voyeur, thus also acknowledging the long tradition of artists representing themselves in various roles in their work.

The titles are intensely meaningful and personal to me and are an integral part of my work. They are also intended to concentrate and provoke the thoughts of the viewer to question themselves and those around them - perhaps with recognition, wry humour or to reappraise the poetry of common parlance and catch phrases.

The Fool as Ahab (small diptych II - red) - from 'Portraits’