I could have sprouted out of the ground from Southern China — that’s about all that anyone knows before I was adopted from Jiujiang  and raised in the prairie oasis of Dallas, TX.  As the daughter of a film photographer, I sympathized early with the need to frame the world in a soft and sinister Noir. It is upon these two foundations of my childhood, then, that I begin to explain myself for my aesthetic.

 

My first flirtations with art were through printmaking and stop-motion animation.  An introduction to woodcut and intaglio in high school led me to pursue a lithography-based printmaking major at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.  While still in school the most impactful experience was in earning a travel scholarship which I used to study folk art and puppetry across Europe and the United Kingdom.  After graduating from PAFA’ s Certificate Program in 2016, I took an additional year to complete my BFA at the University of Pennsylvania where I piqued my interests in Folklore, Anthropology, and Earth Science.  Around this time my studio interests expanded to various folk rituals and theatrical traditions, and their role in social commentary. Seeking the time and community to explore these topics further for my art, I have since had the pleasure of participating in the Bread and Puppet Apprenticeship in 2018, and Officina Stamperia del Notaio’s studio residency in Sicily last summer. My ongoing series in collage theaters and  animation focus on pushing my sculptural and performative tendencies towards a unique multimedia expression.

 

https://www.maisieobrien.com/