Mary Skrenta
MaterialSmith

I am interested not in what art is, but what it does.

In an attempt to understand the complexity of the human condition, I investigate notions of value existing within social constructs. I am provoked by cultural conditioning that trains us to value an artificial version of the human state. What we value is a reflection of social conditioning. I am particularly interested in our constructed value systems relating to the term beauty within and related to the natural world.

I am a MaterialSmith.

Paramount in my work process are the thoughts I wish to provoke, and my materials become the dialect with which I express those ideas. 

The transformation of materials mimics the transformation of a psychological state in response to cultural and societal influences. Social constructs press upon us; when we can bear no more we press back or explode.

Process is Philosophy


I make because I live.

I live because I make.


Using Format