Madonna & Child OR Re-parenting My Inner Child. A film by Mary Bogdan.


The significance of the work lies in the creative process as well as in the final piece itself. It involves recycling, recovery, manipulation, and the alteration of “found” objects.


My works are a personal vision of self-discovery and a recognition of continual reinvention.


It is the shaping of the self through the creation of art and the development of the art through self construction.


Like my personal journey, the “found” objects are brought to life and also transformed.


This ongoing and evolving cycle is the essence of my work.

The making of the Madonna & Child Or Re-parenting My Inner Child, Series 3. A film by Mary Bogdan.


And so, over a span of a few weeks, and many different stages, this work revealed itself to me, through its many transitions and transformations, to its ultimate… transcendence.


Here's an article I wrote for the Mixed Media Blog: see the blog. It's a great place to learn about and discover what's new with mixed media.


I wanted to write a bit about my process in creating the 13 pieces, called “Madonna & Child OR Re-parenting My Inner Child”, series #3, which were meant to be sent to the 9th International Collage Exhibition and Exchange in New Zealand. Upon completion of the series, I had some reservations about sending them. The point of the exchange is for artists from all over the world to exhibit and exchange works with one another, which would have meant that my pieces would be gone from me forever. I am not one for letting my art go too easily, if at all. But that is fodder for yet another article. I gathered all my internal strength and decided to send the works, only to discover that due to strict New Zealand laws about the importing of plant and organic materials (in order to protect their own plant life), my works would be stopped at the customs entry point because I used dried leaves, parsley, twigs, hibiscus bloom, etc., in many of my collages. “Fair enough”, I thought, as I jumped for joy (on the inside). I cannot send them, so I’ll just have to keep them, and try again next year with a different series and without the plant material.


Here are a few thoughts about how I went about conceiving and creating this series of thirteen.


I originally started with a very large image (see above), measuring approx. 70 inches x 17 inches, which I composed in Photoshop, in several layers. This would divide up into the images needed for the thirteen collages. I combined the digital art images from the Madonna & Child Or Re-parenting My Inner Child, series no 1 and series no 2, which I had made earlier and which had just been on exhibit at Arts Sutton, Québec. read more...

Love [ME] Tender. A film by Mary Bogdan.


This series of intimate self-portraits has been a long time coming... it was my sister who was the "pretty one", the "thin one"... I grew up in her shadow... I was her little sister... never able to be mom's "favorite"... These are painful thoughts, years of feeling self-loathing... today I took these photos of myself with love & forgiveness, & thoughts of "I am beautiful"... chubby, but beautiful...


My heritage was my sense of myself as a "fat person"... not quite worthy of beauty & love. Feeling deep pains as I write this... but today is the day I fight back & say "It's OK to be fat"... It's beautiful if you feel beautiful inside, if you are loved deeply by a wonderful man & if you love yourself enough to forgive yourself for being "fat"...


I think these photos of myself are full of love & beauty... that's how I feel about [ME]... today.


SleepyOwl says: Oh, yes, the depth of the music layering really complements the depth of your personal revelatory journeying... You are so generous, Mary, to invite us to witness this transmutation of sorrow and painful memories. The video felt like an exorcism viewed through a kaleidoscope with its richness of shapes and colors, and at other moments there was the simple purity of free-fall flight -- into healing... I played the video a bunch of times -- first with the sound only, then with only the images, then integrated. Then on the fourth viewing I was struck with the message of the universality and the complexity and the power and the joy of human sensuality.


See the whole series of photographs

Madonna & Child, The Whole Series. A film by Mary Bogdan.


A video presenting the whole series of the current works by Mary Bogdan, entitled Madonna & Child, Or Re-Parenting My Inner Child, which deals with the theme of change or the hope of change. The artist addresses the issue of personal evolution in her own unique way through her encounter with the creative process. Within the moments of incidental illuminations that occur along the way, she discovers hope for metamorphosis, leading to transformation and ultimately, transcendence. The work involves the recycling, recovery, manipulation and alteration of “found” objects and demonstrates the pursuit of reinvention of self, of an approach to life or a way of being. It addresses the shaping of the self through the creation of art, both on a personal and collective level. The work looks at inner struggles and seeks a better understanding of self and its place in our society. It portrays a quest for healing – a way to undo the past or, at least, to understand the present and invent a better future. http://www.flickr.com/photos/marybogdan.

A Book About Death | MOMA Wales


This piece (a triptych) is my submission to this new chapter in ABAD.


A series of art postcards I've collected over a period of time from many different locations/venues, which I've crumpled-up or folded, and married them together to create this hanging piece, a series of three. I've also embroidered the words "a book about death" on the ribbons attached.


After the exhibition in May, this piece will remain in the collection of MOMA Wales. ART & MUSIC by Mary Bogdan.


See the work