Marilynn Mallory Brandenburger

mmbrand@bellsouth.net

Artist's Statement

The focus of my work is nature. Currently this takes two forms: large-scale landscape paintings, primarily in oil, and small, intimate studies of nature's detail, in watercolor and pencil on paper.

The landscapes reflect my love of wild nature; the images come from my travels to national parks, wildlife refuges and other natural preserves where the wild still prevails. The simple beauty of a grove of trees stark against the sky or sunlight bouncing off river stones inspires me to capture them in paint.

The detail studies are of man's and nature's discards: broken shells, rusting metal, animal bones, pottery shards, decaying leaves and wood. Each of these is undergoing a transformation that is a metaphor for the great and mysterious changes earth, living things and human works undergo over time. Shell becomes sand becomes sea floor; iron becomes rust becomes mineral; wood becomes sawdust becomes soil; pottery becomes shard becomes clay. These processes grab my attention because of their raw beauty. Held to the light, the shells and bones and other fragments are miniature sculptures, created by the artisans of time and decay. Their colors, shapes and textures inspire me to transform them into another art form, to images on paper. As I do so, I come to terms with my own small part in this immense flow of change and time.

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Artist's Biography

Marilynn Brandenburger has been a practicing artist and art instructor for more than twenty-five years. Her awards and recognition include grants from the Georgia Council for the Arts and the Kellogg Foundation, appointments as Artist-in Residence in national and state parks, and signature status in the Colored Pencil Society of America.

Photographs and articles about her work have been published in local and national newspapers and magazines, exhibition catalogs, and two published books, The Best of Colored Pencil 5 and The Island Within Us. She has also created the illustrations for three books, including two in natural science, her primary area of interest.

A native of the Midwest, Marilynn has lived in the South for more than thirty years. She holds a Bachelors degree in anthropology from Tulane University and a Masters degree in art education from Florida Atlantic University and is a graduate of Harvard's Institute for the Management of Lifelong Education.

Marilynn participates regularly in juried competitions, and has been exhibiting her work in national shows since 1980. Currently her work is in collections throughout the U.S., including Gainesville College (GA), Glacier National Park (MT), Hollywood Museum of Art (FL), Isle Royale National Park (MI) and Tyee Asset Strategies (WA). In addition to the examples on this web site, Marilynn's work can be seen at the Georgia Artist's Registry, in the Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree Street, Atlanta.

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RESUME: MARILYNN MALLORY BRANDENBURGER

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Emory University, "Lands Left Wild," Atlanta, GA, 2000
Middle Georgia Art Association, Macon, GA, 2000
Emory University, "Contemplation, a Quiet View of Nature," Atlanta, GA, 1999
Callanwolde Fine Arts Center,: "Images From the Wild,"  Atlanta, GA, 1999
Columbia Theological Seminary: "Ways of Meditation," Atlanta, GA, 1998


SELECTED JURIED COMPETITIONS
	Lexington Art League: "Masterpieces of Maturity," Lexington, KY, 2001
	Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation: "Southworks '01," Watkinsville, GA, 2001
	Colored Pencil Society of America: 8th International, Detroit, MI, 2000
	Lexington Art League: Masterpieces of Maturity, Lexington, KY, 2000
	National Park Academy for the Arts: Arts for the Parks Top 100, Jackson, WY, 1999
	Colored Pencil Society of America: 7th International, Seattle, WA, 1999
	Colored Pencil Society of America: 6th International, Arlington, VA, 1998
Georgia Watercolor Society: 19th National, Dalton, GA, 1998
	National Park Academy for the Arts: Arts for the Parks Top 100, Jackson, WY, 1997
	Colored Pencil Society of America: 5th International, Seattle, WA, 1997


HONORS / AWARDS
	Signature status, Colored Pencil Society of America, 1999
	Artist-in-Residence, Smithgall Wood Conservation Center, GA, 1999
	Artist-in-Residence, Glacier National Park, MT, 1998
	Artist-in-Residence, Isle Royale National Park, MI, 1997
	DeKalb Council for the Arts Individual Artist Grants, 1989, 1990, 1999
	Kellogg Foundation Career Enhancement Award, 1986


SELECTED BIOGRAPHY
	White County News-Telegraph: Lee Johnson, "Drawing Comes Naturally," September 9  1999
	The DeKalb Neighbor:  Nicole Lee, "Decatur Woman teaches the Art of Nature," May 26, 1999
	The Hendersonville Times-News: Linda March, "Celebrating the Wild," July 19, 1998
	The Decatur Community Review: "Meditate with a Nature Journal," October 9, 1997
	The Macon Telegraph: "Artists in Milledgeville," January 22, 1993


PUBLICATIONS
	Featured artist: The Island Within Us. Isle Royale Natural History Association, Houghton, MI, 2000
	Featured artist: The Best of Colored Pencil 5.  Rockport Publishers Inc., 1999
	Cover Painting: Art Calendar Magazine.  Upper Fairmount, MD, July 2000
	Illustrations: 
     Oh, My Goodness, Peachtree Publishers, Atlanta, GA, 2000
     My Mother Talks to Trees, Peachtree Publishers, Atlanta, GA, 1999
     "Footprints," Nature Conservancy Magazine, July-Aug, Arlington, VA, 1998


EDUCATION
M.Ed. in Curriculum& Instruction in Art, Concentration in Drawing & Painting, Florida Atlantic University, 1980
B.A. in Cultural Anthropology, cum laude, Tulane University, 1969

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