Collection: Reardon, Mary

Mary Reardon was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Mary is a graduate of Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), majoring in studio and minoring in art history. While studying at NSCAD she completed a body of work in the printmaking department, and through the use of bird imagery, described the ways in which memories come back to us. This became her graduate show at the Anna Leonowens Gallery, entitled "Messengers".

Artist Statement

"My work concerns itself with the theme of memory. The sum of our memories is the essence of who we are as individuals and yet the process our minds use when remembering or forgetting is invisible to us

In order to affect this description, I have turned to one of the traditions of the still life: the use of objects as symbols. The bird has been used throughout the history of the visual arts to represent the human soul. Following in this tradition I use the feather to represent the human soul or, in psychological terms, our memories. The containers, nest and branches I have depicted are meant to represent the physical mind and how it functions as it holds-or fails to hold-those memories.