Artist Statement
Inspired by movement in nature, dance, and body language, I begin my sculpture by drawing in space with my armature materials. Each line drawn is an emotional response to the previous one. I usually have a general concept and formal consideration- a carryover from my previous sculpture, but no specific plan for the final result. I am an observer as the sculpture evolves. While building, my main concern is for the piece to work well in the round so that there is a continuum of form anywhere I pause. Only after I’ve completed the sculpture can I articulate its meaning according to what was going on in or around my life at the time, so I title the works based on the movement of how the piece unfolds.
From start to finish my medium-sized pieces take at least three months to create with the majority of time spent building the armature. As I build, the armature goes through many shifts and changes, but once completed it is very close to the final form. I coat and pack the armature with my concrete mix – a recipe given to me by an engineer involved in bridge building. It is structural, stronger than I need, has some flexural and tensile strength, and allows me to work fairly thin keeping the weight down to 35 -74 lbs. for my medium-sized sculptures. When the base coat has set I topcoat it with decorative concrete with integral color, or most recently I have started painting the surface. All of my sculptures are intended for indoors. However, with the help of a fabricator and a commission, they could be replicated, scaled to a determined size, and created in a way that is suitable for outdoors using current technology and methods.
Bio
Mary Oros has held previous careers in product design, creating sculptural pieces, including contemporary concrete garden planters, cast bronze furniture hardware, and cast resin costume jewelry. But sculpture has always been Mary’s first love, and she now feels grateful and fortunate to be making sculpture full-time. In 2005, after participating in a group show with Pacific Rim Sculptors, and as a gift of the Seward Johnson Atelier, her sculpture “Henry Takes His First Steps” was replicated in aluminum and installed at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey. Her sculptures have been shown at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery, Marin MOCA, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, throughout the Bay Area, in Southern California, at Art San Diego 2018, and Art Market San Francisco 2022 with Desta Gallery. She was awarded third place in the prestigious 81st Crocker Kingsley 2022 exhibition, and her sculpture “Flurry” was exhibited in The deYoung Museum’s “deYoung Open 2023”. Mary’s sculptures have been featured on the cover and in Benicia Magazine, as an advertisement for Grounds for Sculpture in Sculpture Magazine, and are in several private collections. Oros earned a BFA in Sculpture from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1977 and received the school’s top honor The Agnes Gund Award. As an undergrad, she was awarded an honorary scholarship for one year and a partial scholarship to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in the summer of 1975 when she was awarded the Purchase Prize. Currently, Oros lives and works in Benicia, CA.