The unifying undercurrent in Maggie’s artwork plays with ideas and concepts surrounding nature, healing, and the human connection.
The Poppy Project is my 10th ArtPrize entry
https://www.artprize.org/70055
I completed my MFA in Painting at Savannah College of Art and Design in March of 2021. I am a full-time artist after 27 years of teaching art: my studio and office are in Grand Haven, Michigan, where I reside with my family. I have participated in all 10 ArtPrize competitions. My style and techniques changed a great deal from the first ArtPrize in 2009. I have grown to understand why I make art and what I want my art to communicate.
In 2020 while working on my MFA thesis, I visited a Poppy in Fennville, Michigan. I am attracted to the Poppy Flower. Its fleeting blooms amaze me with their delicate petals. To me, they symbolize life and loss. This association grew after reading the poem Flanders Fields John McCrae. The relationship between beauty and grief connected in my mind and my artwork after visiting the field. My work usually takes the form of nature abstracted. From far away, my ArtPrize entry looks like a field of wildflowers. But when the viewer looks up close, they can see abstracted figures representing people. This symbolism communicates our human connection with nature and the spiritual world.
After visiting the Poppy field in Fennville, I found out it was a memorial for Sargent Mateo Donaldson, a young veteran. Mateo had PTSD when he returned from combat in Afghanistan. He served in the Navy and the Army for 15 years. Unfortunately, Mateo took his life in 2015. When Mateo and Carlos(his brother) were teens, they became beekeepers on his family's blueberry farm and ran a thriving business. When the boys left home, their adoptive parents John and Joan, continued to plant the fields of wildflowers. After his death, they sowed the field near the cemetery in his honor, hoping it would comfort other grieving families. They had no idea how God would use it during the pandemic, and they are thankful that the flower field helped so many others during this difficult time.
When I visited the field in the spring of 2020, I struggled with making "pretty" artwork and what my contributions to the world meant amidst all the violence and hate going on due to racial & political unrest and the pandemic. I felt maybe my artwork needed to change, but I did not know what I could offer to the world. There was so much tension, isolation, grief, and sadness going on in the world my contributions felt trivial. But after seeing the field that Mateo's parents planted, I had a new perspective—seeing the Poppy field brought a great sense of calm and peace to my anxious mind. I thought maybe my artwork could do the same for someone else.
My ArtPrize entry is at DeVos Convention Center
https://www.artprize.org/70055
I completed my MFA in Painting at Savannah College of Art and Design in March of 2021. I am a full-time artist after 27 years of teaching art: my studio and office are in Grand Haven, Michigan, where I reside with my family. I have participated in all 10 ArtPrize competitions. My style and techniques changed a great deal from the first ArtPrize in 2009. I have grown to understand why I make art and what I want my art to communicate.
In 2020 while working on my MFA thesis, I visited a Poppy in Fennville, Michigan. I am attracted to the Poppy Flower. Its fleeting blooms amaze me with their delicate petals. To me, they symbolize life and loss. This association grew after reading the poem Flanders Fields John McCrae. The relationship between beauty and grief connected in my mind and my artwork after visiting the field. My work usually takes the form of nature abstracted. From far away, my ArtPrize entry looks like a field of wildflowers. But when the viewer looks up close, they can see abstracted figures representing people. This symbolism communicates our human connection with nature and the spiritual world.
After visiting the Poppy field in Fennville, I found out it was a memorial for Sargent Mateo Donaldson, a young veteran. Mateo had PTSD when he returned from combat in Afghanistan. He served in the Navy and the Army for 15 years. Unfortunately, Mateo took his life in 2015. When Mateo and Carlos(his brother) were teens, they became beekeepers on his family's blueberry farm and ran a thriving business. When the boys left home, their adoptive parents John and Joan, continued to plant the fields of wildflowers. After his death, they sowed the field near the cemetery in his honor, hoping it would comfort other grieving families. They had no idea how God would use it during the pandemic, and they are thankful that the flower field helped so many others during this difficult time.
When I visited the field in the spring of 2020, I struggled with making "pretty" artwork and what my contributions to the world meant amidst all the violence and hate going on due to racial & political unrest and the pandemic. I felt maybe my artwork needed to change, but I did not know what I could offer to the world. There was so much tension, isolation, grief, and sadness going on in the world my contributions felt trivial. But after seeing the field that Mateo's parents planted, I had a new perspective—seeing the Poppy field brought a great sense of calm and peace to my anxious mind. I thought maybe my artwork could do the same for someone else.
My ArtPrize entry is at DeVos Convention Center
https://www.artprize.org/70055
Poppies, 48x58 inch oil on canvas
2021 Floral Series Mixed Media on canvas
Link to virtual exhibit www.artsteps.com/view/5f8a3452eb2bfd186777e8eb