Artist Statement
Notes from the Sea reflects the clash/coexistence between the industrial and the natural worlds.
Industrial debris, machine parts, and marine life are entangled or morph into one another. Begun after the Gulf Oil Spill, this series is fueled by my concerns about environmentally destructive practices: the devastation of coral reefs through the system of bottom trawling; plastic packaging that washes out to sea, contributing to the five gyres and to beaches awash with plastic bottles; oil spills. I use the materiality of paper and print to present images of beauty while offering reflections on destruction.
From Quirky virtual exhibit, quote from Beth Shadur, curator: “Marilyn Propp’s work has an environmental theme. . .. [She] uses an eclectic mix of images to convey her concern for clean water and its inhabitants. Her prints on handmade paper are comprised of layered images of aquatic creatures and the human detritus that threatens them. Her use of scale distortions exaggerate the dangerous elements, as funky screws, pipes and propellors swirl actively through her round works on paper, colliding with sea creatures such as octopi and turtles. . . .. Propp uses color to enhance her message, with soft pale colors of water opposed to the black outline of the various man-made objects, and occasional spilling of intense and acidic color that suggestively threatens danger from man-made substances. While Propp addresses an extremely serious issue in her work, she too infuses humor and edginess into her expressive imagery by virtue of the cartoonish drawings of hardware that have slightly wobbly silhouettes. . .. [The] outward distant appearance seems peaceful and lovely until viewed more closely; suddenly, as the details become clearer, the danger lurks.”