Artospective: Figurative Paintings by Mary Chiaramonte from America.

Mother I'm Tired, 18 x 24 inches, acrylic on wood.

An Interview with Mary Chiaramonte.

Who and where are you from?

I was born in 1979 and raised in Harmony, West Virginia, a town with a post office, no stop lights, and a population of about 100 people, if that. We had this self- sufficient lifestyle of farming everything we needed- A massive vegetable garden, rabbits, dairy goats, ducks, chickens, bees- and I, along with my brother and twin sister, often spent our time working to help out our parents. Having a career as an artist requires a lot of self discipline and hours on end in the studio, and I believe this sort of upbringing immensely lent a hand in my focus.

How you got into this?

At three, one of our "neighbors," (I use quotes because the closest one was a mile off), had me sit for a portrait. I was entirely blown away by this whole scene- I was dying to know what was going on at the other side of the canvas- How she drew, what lines she made, what's that scratching noise?! So basically, from then on I spent much of my time drawing and painting. We didn't have TV or things like this, so it was easy to get sucked into making art.

What is your driving force?

There is always an underlying sense of something to say. Whether anyone reads it or not isn't the point, but there is the feeling that I have to purge something from my body and spirit. If circumstances don't allow me to work for a time I start to feel itchy and restless.

What kind of work you do and why?

Much of my work is narrative. I like to pair a human kind of story with the use of figurative work. Around the time I was 8, 9 and 10, I wrote and illustrated countless stories, I was obsessed with it, so I suppose the feeling of wanting to emulate a message that I see in our living or our lives, has stuck with me since. My work has been labelled as "dark, " and I'm sorry if I make anyone cry, it isn't my aim. My personality is quite the opposite of what you see. I think I laugh more than most people you see around, so I feel as if this darkness that surfaces in the work has served as a vehicle to empty those feelings. That, and there is the will to make sense of it all. I've always carried too much empathy than is good for me.