Marta is a founding member of Musa Collective and has a studio at Waltham Mills. For the exhibition, Take A Line For A Walk, Marta invited friend and NYC-based artist Liz Davenport; both have three works in the show. We delve deeper into Marta's practice here with four questions that we've posed to each artist in the exhibition.
1) How do you begin a drawing?
The first thing I do is try to empty my head of all the daily baggage it carries around. This is sometimes the hardest part. I gather some materials (paper, pens, markers, paints, yarn, for example) and then I begin to play. I think about how the materials feel, where they want to go. Do I need to add color, contrast, texture? If I’ve successfully emptied my mind, one thing leads to another. Occasionally when I’m stuck I’ll crochet. After all, a ball of yarn is one long line so I take it for a walk. It’s also very meditative and eases me into a more focused mindset.
2) Tell us about the drawings in the show.
I’ve been experimenting with different materials during quarantine. My access to a ceramics studio ended, so I played with air dry clay and polymer clay. I’ve been working with circles for years, and I taught myself to crochet spheres. Through my play with materials, objects are born. These seemed to come together. I call these drawings because making them was a way of working through some ideas.
(L) Chain Flower & (R) Under Pressure, from Take A Line For A Walk
3) How has your practice been affected in the last few months
I live in my studio, so the quarantine gave me the time to
take stock of what I’ve been working on. I was fortunate to get unemployment and decided to take this time as a ‘paid’ artist residency. To be honest I really enjoyed slowing down and not rushing between two outside jobs and my job as an artist. I kept telling friends who would ask how I’m doing that this was a good time to be an introverted artist.
4) Where does drawing take you?
When I’m lucky it takes me out of myself. If I find myself laughing at what I’m doing in the studio I know I’m on the right track.
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