Hopscotch Acrylic and mixed media on paper, 22" x 22."	The Locusts Mixed media collage on rag board, 26 1/4 x 29 1/8."
Dream of the Phoenix Acrylic & mixed media on paper, 22" x 30."

Mary Boxley Bullington

Key to my collages and paintings is a physical, often percussive rhythm, fluid line, and vibrant color. I love visual saturation-I strive to give my viewers so much to see in any one piece that they must take it in gradually, over time. At the same time, my job is to create a pleasing visual order out of the chaos. My pleasure as an artist lies in turning interesting accidents, ambiguities, and coincidences into a kind of musical phrasing, complete with harmony and dissonance.

My figurative work often implies a narrative, sometimes with biblical, mythic or allegoric overtones. My collages are made up of what I call "dress material"--I create lots of paintings on paper each year, many made specifically to cut up and collage with-and I keep in my studios 4 big bins and various small ones filled with fragments which I sort through as needed, seeking the right bits. My collages often build by accretion, until a whole emerges made of many different bits, each with its own texture, color, and feel. Some pieces, paved with this material, become virtual paper mosaics. In others, the collage becomes the foundation of a painting.

Usually I start more or less arbitrarily, with a few marks on a piece of paper, canvas or wood, or a few scraps thrown down against a painted surface. I work primarily by trial and error-each piece I work on requires its own process, which evolves along the way, akin to a new game to which I add rules as I go. I slow down more and more as a piece comes together, changing areas-sometimes radically-as need or intuition dictates.

In Roanoke, I show at The Market Gallery downtown.

Honors and Awards
The Paul Ostaseski Memorial Award, Sidewalk Art Show, Roanoke, VA 2009
Best in Show, Sidewalk Art Show, Roanoke, VA, 2008
The Antsey Hodge Advertising Group Award for Excellence in Design, 2007
Awards for Mixed Media, Sidewalk Art Show, Roanoke, VA2007, 1998
Award in All Mixed Up: A Mixed Media Exhibition. The Sawtooth Gallery, Winston Salem, NC 1995

Mary Boxley Bullington
540-904-2828
email: marybullington@cox.net
blog: maryboxleybullington.blogspot.com