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Toast can save your life, if you let it.

Image: Mary Pratt
To find out how things actually look is a revelation.
— Mary Pratt, 1997

I got to the Mary Pratt exhibit on the very last day of the show.  I took my almost ten year old with me and she was astonished.  It was exciting to be with someone who had never seen her work before.  She kept repeating over and over, "I can't believe they are not photographs."  

She put on the headphones and heard Mary Pratt speak about her art.

At one point she relayed that Mary Pratt thought she was cheating because she painted from photographs.

My daughter shook her head and said simply, "She's no cheat."

I have been to a Mary Pratt exhibit before at the Art Gallery of NS back when I was a university student and she continues to be my favourite artist.  She has definitely made a noticeable impression on my own work.  However, I had not yet seen an image of hers that you can see above called Between the Dark and the Daylight (2011).   It moved me to tears.  After all these years, Mary Pratt's vision has matured and become perfected, but at heart it is still focused on the simplest matters.  The image of translucent toast is both comforting and transcendent.  Toast can save your life if you let it.


Image: Mary Pratt
My only strength is finding something where most people would find nothing. (Mary Pratt)

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Comments

  1. Kate Hall3/13/2015 10:51 am

    ah, now that is gorgeous. absolutely so. will go now and fill in my sorrowful ignorance of mary pratt. beauty!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kate Hall3/13/2015 10:57 am

    oh my goodness, look. http://picklemethis.com/2013/08/25/mary-pratt/

    ReplyDelete
  3. MotherOfGooses3/14/2015 11:44 am

    ooooh, thanks for sharing this blog post. nice. mary pratt has a knack for making my dirty kitchen glow a little in certain types of light. I' ve a lot to thank her for. She helps me abide in stacks of dirty dishes and laundry piles.

    ReplyDelete

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