About Molly Brunhild: Outsider artist Molly Brunhild lives her dream from many years ago: to live a bohemian lifestyle on a hill surrounded by valleys and other hills, far away from cities, free to paint when she chooses.
Born in Tennessee, she spent much of her early life with her grandparents in Florida, and when she could, visited her writer mother in New York City. During the 1950s, her mother ran with a pretty hip crowd of artists and writers which influenced young Molly’s outlook on the world and art. As a child, she was fascinated with drawing the shapes of lips and high heel shoes. At the age of 12, Molly asked one such artist, Ben Benn, “How does it feel to be a famous artist?” While Molly never knew Benn’s work at that time or since, her own work reminds the viewer of this pioneer in modernism.
Molly lives in Silver City near her children and grandchildren. Her studio gallery, which is also her living space, invites one into a collage of books, collectibles, and art on walls and furniture. Using paint and collage of unconventional materials, she prefers wood as a base. Sometimes the grain of the wood suggests images and subject content, as she works. She believes in the magic of art in that a painting paints itself if it’s straight from the heart where the truth is. She works fast, sometimes from start to finish in an hour or two. If too much thought goes into a painting, she believes it cuts off the energy from the heart, and while the painting may be a graceful design, it becomes too full of ego.
True to her free spirit, Molly’s subjects for paintings often come to her in dreams, as do the titles such as “They Administer Ironstation to Master Brown.” If a title doesn’t come to her, she may pick a number to represent it. While she doesn’t intend to influence the viewer, she does explore her political views as in “Western Hospitality,” a satire on western civilization’s influence on the world, and she confronts establishment color theory in “Mosim Bey.”
The simple essence of her style and intent can best be seen in her most recent work, “Last Dream,” a heartfelt reaction to the current American political arena.
Her work is in a number of private collections, and was the subject of the first chapter in Mary Beth Elam's book Mining the Treasures: Contemporary Comstock Artists.
About Silver City Arts: Silver City Arts draws on the community's own rich resource of artists, artisans and musicians, and also connects with regional and statewide groups to bring programming by national and international artists and musicians to town. Since 2014, the group of volunteers has hosted music, visual arts, fine crafts, and poetry events and programs, such as a pop-up show by Danish artist Nes Lerpa; a reading by Nevada poet Shaun Griffin; music by cellists Diane Kotik and Becky Crowe; a pop-up show and reception for Karen Kreyeksi's exhibition The Women's Project; a screening of the documentary "Rockin' at the Red Dog: The Dawn of Psychedelic Rock" by Silver City native Mary Works Covington; and an official Nevada Sesquicentennial event featuring art, fine photography, publications, poetry, hand-crafted jewelry and silverwork by Silver City residents. The group's mission is "to encourage the arts, build community, and share our unique town through free, public events."
Where is Silver City? Silver City is located on the Comstock within a federally designated historic landmark 3 miles from Virginia City, 7 miles from Dayton, and 12 miles from Carson City. For more information about the show, contact Carol Godwin of Silver City Arts at godwinsilvercity@aol.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment