Artwork copyright Marie Conner. Photo courtesy of the artist, 2023.

Pain/ting: Metamorphosis, 2023

Marie Conner
(American, born 1970)

Location: Kessler Center, Puyallup

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Pain/ting: Metamorphosis by Marie Conner is an abstract painting done in short intervals to represent the limited endurance of her disabled body. She used non-typical tools to paint such as kitchen tools and car cleaning tools "to represent adapting to and moving through a world not made for me."

This artwork is part of a curated collection by Lucile Chich in October 2023 for the Kessler Center, in Puyallup, Western Washington. The collection is based on joy, color, and the inclusion of a marginalized population within the arts community. It was critical to the local Art Selection Committee that the collection celebrate artists who are experiencing disability. This could be physical, neurological, or intellectual. They also wanted the see artists who use the transformative powers of artmaking to transcend, to heal, to rejoice.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Puyallup School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Marie Conner is a Portland, Oregon-based inter-disciplinary artist, writer, educator, and arts accessibility consultant. She believes in learning by doing, and her work asserts that the non-normative body can be seen through the lens of the sublime and beautiful. She strives to open lines of communication concerning difference and acceptance.

Conner received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts, Sculpture and Non-fiction Writing in 2015 and a Master of Education degree in 2017, both from Portland State University. In 2019, she received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Visual Studies from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon.