Mary McCleary, who was named "Texas Artist of the Year" for 2011 by the Art League of Houston, Texas, is primarily known as a a painter and "builds" her paintings using collage elements to create images that come close to photographic realism.
Mary says of her work, "I make my collages by attaching materials such as paint, paper, rag board, foil, glitter, wire, mirrors, beads, painted sticks, string, leather, small plastic toys and other found objects on heavy paper, much in the way a painter builds layer upon layer of paint on canvas. My aim is that the obsessive images that result from this method of working convey an intensity, which the viewer finds compelling. I am interested in the spatial complexity and visual tensions that come from the collages being illusionistic, while at the same time composed of three-dimensional objects that often retain their own identity. I frequently take my subject matter from history, science or literature. At other times I select an image for its resonance or poetic quality. Occasionally I will add typed text. I like the irony of using materials that are often trivial, foolish, and temporal to express ideas of what is significant, timeless, and transcendent."
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Mary McCleary examining the B.A.T. print for Names Written In Water.